Journal paper of September 15, 2017 discuses (1) Rockchuck (Yellow Belly Marmot) as wreaking havoc at the Parks and Recreation Building. We live within the city limits (on Philbin Road) and actively trapped these critters all summer. To date we have trapped 51 in our yard alone. They seem to be everywhere. We have drove by them out on Alameda and Hawthorne where they were mating in the middle of the street, we have seen them in numerous places in town as well as our drives to out of the area locations. There is a huge rock pile created by a builder between our property and the new subdivision, a perfect habitat for these rodents. Yes they climb trees, they crawl into culverts, they climb into vehicle engines, they poop everywhere, out buildings and cement structures are no barrier to them, and they dig right down under any fence. I had one try to enter into my camp trailer while I was in it cleaning.

We have personally talked to every agency in the city, county, state we can about eliminating them. The only thing anyone would offer is for us to trap them, it would be our responsibility. In searching the internet it states they have up to 20 young per year with the young ones reproducing by the end of the season. I think we are going to have a crisis next year. There were many more in the rock pile that didn’t make it across the irrigation ditch to our place. I implore the cities of Pocatello and Chubbuck to come up with some sort of plan for eradication within city limits before the numbers become overwhelming.

Cathy McPherson,

Pocatello