Rural Alberta VS. Richardson Ground Squirrel

Update: 2025-11-10

Description

Strychnine — a name that carries a long legacy across the Prairies. For decades, it was the go-to pesticide for gopher control in Alberta.

That is, until the federal government began phasing out its use on Richardson’s ground squirrels back in 2020 — and then banned it outright in 2024.

The small animal at the centre of it all — the Richardson’s ground squirrel, known more commonly as the gopher — has been described as “a destructive force across the prairie provinces, threatening cereal, oilseed, pulse, forage, pasture, and horticultural crops.” And according to the Province of Alberta, the annual risk to hay and native pasture due to damage caused by ground squirrels now exceeds eight hundred million dollars.

The story goes back to 2018, when Health Canada re-evaluated the use of strychnine as a rodenticide. At that time, Alberta and Saskatchewan were the only provinces still authorizing it for gopher control. The 2020 decision began a three-year phase-out, leading to the full ban we have today.

But even as strychnine disappeared from fields and fencerows, it didn’t vanish entirely. Its use to control certain predators — like wolves, black bears, and skunks — remained legal, though only in Alberta.

And the Richardson’s ground squirrel? It’s not even officially a “pest” under Alberta’s Pest and Nuisance Control Regulation — it’s classified as a nuisance.

Now, that may sound like a small distinction, but in rural Alberta, the implications are big — especially for farmers and ranchers watching their pastures disappear one mound at a time.

Last month, during an Agriculture Committee meeting in Ottawa, federal Agriculture Minister Heath McDonald suggested there could be “some potential movement” toward allowing strychnine once again for the elimination of Richardson’s ground squirrels.

So — where does that leave us? What does the upcoming year look like for producers still battling an animal many call one of the prairies’ most persistent challenges?

To help unpack what’s at stake, we’re joined today by three voices from rural Alberta:

Foothills County Reeve Rob Siewert, Beaver County Reeve Gene Hrabec, and Linda Hunt, Executive Assistant for the Alberta Agricultural Service Boards.

I’m Christopher Brown, and this is Municipal Affairs.

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