Gophers in West Sonoma County are stuff of legends…in some places they have eaten 1/3 of new planted vines. They are a constant nuisance and something they don’t tell you about much when you start a vineyard. So…they get trapped and hopefully the population declines over time.

Well, this time of year I really hate them because they like tender new shoots from young vines that are producing grapes for the first year…after I have carefully tended them for almost 3 years. As you can see in the picture they killed this vine just yesterday with grapes still hanging.

Hate to say this out loud…but I hope to say RIP to this gopher later in the day.

Just FYI…
2012 – 18
2014 – 40
2015 – 55
2016 – 33
2017 – 25 as of 8/5/17