Submitted Electronically via eRulemaking Portal

I oppose listing the pocket gopher as a threatened or endangered species. Information is available in contradiction to representations that the species in question is in jeopardy. I have attached a series of excerpts and website address's to articles found in archives held at the University of Nebraska referencing the "Vertabrate Pest Conferences" whereby it had been held that damage by pocket gophers were a threat to Pacific NW tree plantations. Articles outline efforts from 1962 through 1992 to solve the pocket gopher problem and significant efforts to eradicate these animals through poisons, traps, bounties and other means. This in cooperation with the United States Dept of Agriculture and other government and private agencies. Articles reference research concluding that pocket gophers are extremely "adaptable"and thrive in changed conditions such as soil disturbances or "other man made environmental modifications". I have personally observed this as we find explosions of pocket gopher activity evidence after having installed underground utility services or land clearing. Although it is not evident but if populations are truly reduced, these articles indicate that, rather than residential activity it appears to be the efforts encouraged under the USDA and others to eradicate them for agriculture purposes would more likely be the cause. Quotes from a 1992 article are: "reductions in pocket gopher abundance can be achieved for short periods with strychnine grain bait" and "rapid reinvasion of treated areas by these rodents is one of the key management difficulties." These further provide testiment to the resilence and adaptability of a species. We oppose any effort to subject private property owners with loss of land use and the economic burden of providing special protections to a species that seems to have thrwarted recent major governmental efforts specifically to eliminate them.