Could saving the gophers help revive economy?

James Mutton, Pahrump

Friday, June 25, 2010 | 2:02 a.m.

After reading the Las Vegas Sun’s Wednesday article, “Firepower gives county an edge in war on gophers,” describing the effectiveness of the Rodenator on the pocket gophers tearing up our park grounds and PETA’s not-too-unexpected response to hurting these poor defenseless rodents, I believe I have a solution that will satisfy both sides:

Let Clark County continue to reduce the population until the gopher can be declared an endangered species. Then, we can spend time and money studying the remaining habitat, including the usual scatological examinations, burrow dimensions and orientations, and gopher count. For each piece of land that anyone wants to develop or use, private or public, we can perform the necessary studies and put thousands to work.

The jobs for scientists and other workers in performing such studies would easily match those performing similar work for that other well-known endangered critter of the Mojave. Thousands or millions of dollars would be spent, benefiting our economy enormously. Private developers would bear the study costs, of course, and if deemed necessary would be required to establish preservation areas where these intelligent, useful, charming creatures could be moved.

I believe my suggestion will provide considerably more “bang for the buck” than the Rodenator.