Woodchucks, long the archenemy of gardeners, have also become a problem for the military and some of Concord’s Karner blue butterflies.
The Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services is seeking permission from the Executive Council to use $2,485 in federal money to initiate a woodchuck “control program” at its site in Concord. And control does not mean relocation.
In his request to the council, Adjutant Gen. David Mikolaities said the woodchucks are eating the wild lupine, a primary food source for the endangered Karner blue butterflies, and larvae they leave on the plant.
“It’s like cotton candy to them,” said department spokesman Lt. Col. Gregory Heilshorn.
The responsibility to restore the Karner blues’ habitat falls to the department. Dispatching the woodchucks, which have built at least 23 dens on approximately 15 acres, was not its first choice.
Heilshorn said they began with garlic and coyote urine – with marginal success. Trapping and relocating was next, but the traps were also catching possums and skunks. Help from predators, such as coyotes, is off the table because the dens are behind a fence.
The woodchucks will be captured in traps, which are lethal, Heilshorn said, and disposed of.
“This is the first time we’ve gone to this kind of control because the problem has just become exponentially greater,” he said. “Other than endangering the Karner blue butterflies, they are not affecting any day-to-day operations of the guard. If it weren’t for the lupine, which is the habitat of the Karner blue butterfly, we wouldn’t be pursuing this.”