Photo: Plentiful on much of the Alberta prairie, the Richardson's ground squirrel - a.k.a. the gopher - is nearly impossible to control without the use of strychnine, the province maintains. George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Originally Published: Feb 08, 2026

The federal government should “immediately reinstate” strychnine for farmers and producers to deploy against ballooning gopher populations, an Alberta minister’s office said last week.

The move would reverse a Feb. 2 decision from Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency that found risks to non-target species remain too great to prompt a change in its stance.

The PMRA decision follows an emergency-use application filed in October by the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It upholds a strychnine ban the agency triggered in a 2020 re-evaluation.

Alberta’s minister of agriculture and irrigation, R.J. Sigurdson, was unavailable for comment last week. A statement issued by his ministry said that Alberta farmers and producers face “significant challenges” in controlling Richardson’s ground squirrels.

Rejection of the emergency-use proposal is “devastating for many in the agriculture sector,” the minister’s office said an emailed response to Macleod Gazette questions.

“We are urging the PMRA to reconsider this decision and immediately reinstate the use of strychnine as a practical solution for our farmers and ranchers.”

Gopher is a colloquialism for the Richardson’s ground squirrel, a beige, twitchy-tailed rodent notorious in the agriculture industry for the damage it causes pastures, crops, equipment and livestock.

About 30 centimetres long including a seven-centimetre tail, Richardson’s ground squirrels dig elaborate burrows and create mounds that put equipment and livestock at risk. They also clear neighbouring vegetation at their burrow entrances so they can see predators.

Alberta and Saskatchewan proposed measures like no surface baiting and deep burials of carcasses. They proposed a limited baiting window and mandatory user training, combined with chain-of-custody measures for the poison itself like registration, reporting and tracking.

The federal department, however, found that the provinces’ proposed risk mitigation strategies unconvincing.

Environment and Health ‘Take’ Priority'

In an emailed response to Gazette questions, Health Canada acknowledged “significant agricultural impacts from ground squirrels, including damage to farm fields, risks of injury to cattle and crop losses, particularly in canola.”

The response from the department’s media relations staff continued: “Health Canada considered this information, but under the Pest Control Products Act, environmental and health safety requirements take priority.”

The department said: “In this case, the environmental risks of strychnine, including secondary poisoning of non-target animals and species at risk, could not be mitigated to acceptable levels.”

The decision comes as farmers face their fourth consecutive growing season without being able to use the powerful neurotoxin against gophers.

The agriculture and irrigation office called the rodents “a destructive nuisance that threatens cereal, oilseed, forage and horticultural crops.” Two per cent liquid strychnine “was one of the more effective tools” farmers and producers had in their gopher-fighting arsenals.

Population estimates of Richardson’s ground squirrels aren’t readily available. But there are enough of them to warrant a rating of least concern from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Within the gopher’s range are much of southern and south-central Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The Alberta government said in a June letter to Heath MacDonald, the federal minister of agriculture and agri-food, that the annual risk “to hay and native pasture alone” is upwards of $800 million.

Damage Data

An online survey of farmers and producers in a region of Alberta especially suited for gophers found that 99 per cent of respondents experienced damage to their land from the rodent during the 2024 growing season.

Producers “overwhelmingly indicated” that gopher-related damage was a significant concern, reported the Special Areas Board after collecting 110 survey responses.

The provincially appointed board governs Alberta’s three special areas, which comprise a sprawling and arid east-central region along the Saskatchewan border. The areas comprise over two million hectares of short-grass prairie that surrounds communities like Hanna, Oyen and Consort.

Economic damages worth up to $50,000 were reported by 89 per cent of respondents, with the rest reporting higher tallies. Crop losses of up to 100 per cent were reported and some damage estimates topped $350,000.

Respondents wrote of reseeding costs, equipment damage and downtime, livestock injuries like broken legs, veterinary costs, the need to bring in feed to replace lost forage, and spending money on ineffective gopher control options.

Among those who tried them, common alternatives to strychnine were almost always found to be just somewhat effective or not effective at all.

Almost 50 per cent of the users of bait rodenticide found it ineffective. The number was even worse for fumigation rodenticides, which was around 65 per cent ineffective among a small, self-selected sample of users.

The most successful alternative was guns or traps, but still only a sliver of users — fewer than seven per cent — called them a very effective method of gopher control.

On Swift Foxes and Burrowing Owls

Health Canada called its decision consistent with a 2020 cancellation of strychnine, “which was implemented to protect non-target animals, including species at risk such as the swift fox and burrowing owl, from strychnine-related poisonings.”

The swift fox is considered a threatened species in Canada under the federal Species At Risk Act and endangered under Alberta and Saskatchewan laws. All three governments classify the burrowing owl as endangered.

The phased-in ban came into full effect for farmers and producers before their 2023 growing season.

During its review of the October request, Health Canada “engaged with Alberta and Saskatchewan to clarify proposed mitigation measures,” the response to Gazette questions stated.

“Despite these discussions, the submission did not include new or effective measures to address the risks identified in 2020, and therefore the emergency use request could not be approved.”

‘Deep Disappointment’

John Barlow, the federal shadow minister for agriculture and agri-food, issued a statement expressing “deep disappointment” in the federal government over the decision.

“PMRA must take the real-world consequences of its decisions seriously and act with urgency to protect Canadian agriculture and food security,” Barlow said in his statement.

“At a time when food security and self-reliance matter more than ever, farmers need practical, effective tools to grow the food that feeds Canadians and the world.”