Sweet victory at last

"The mole is dead," announced a weary looking Lt. Gen. A. Dahlia, commander of the Mole Eradication Joint Forces. “Our eight-week long battle has at last reached its conclusion with the death of the mole yesterday afternoon, August 13, sometime between 3:00 and 5:30 pm Pacific time. From this day forward we will remember August 13 as V-M day when our long fought efforts brought to close this dark period in the history of our garden."

The mole first appeared the third week of June. And while most moles are commonly dispatched within 72 hours, early efforts to eradicate this mole proved fruitless. By early July the extent of damage it was creating on a nightly basis had brought construction on the Palouse, Elberton and Ainsworth Railroad to a halt, and it was not long before comparisons to the mole of 2004 could be heard. According to one local man, "Back in aught-four we really did refer to molehills as mountains as that’s how big they were. I never thought I'd live to see another mole as bad as that one."

Director of Garden Planning H. A. Perovskia was circumspect. "Moles come and go, but we hadn’t seen this level of destruction in many years. It's hard to put into words how frustrating and demoralizing this experience has been. There are times that I felt that further work in the garden was pointless – why put in effort only to see your work ripped out that night?

"The destruction of the new iris bed was especially hard," he continued. "We had to rescue the damaged rhizomes and essentially start over from scratch, knowing that the mole could tear through the iris bed again at any moment. And the path by the bird feeders was especially hard hit and will require a major rebuild – I don’t know how long that will take."

One of many recently patched spots visible on the lawn at mid-day today.
This patch is at the site where the mole was finally trapped.

Hard effort pays off

The MEJF commander provided some additional detail when asked about how the victory was won.

"Over the past two weeks mole activity had shifted away from the eastern front and appeared to be centered under the new patio,” explained Lt. Gen. Dahlia. “We focused our forces on the perimeter, installing and shifting traps around the patio two or three times a day. Last night, the diligent efforts of our fighting men and women finally paid off."

Time for healing

Now that the battle has been won, efforts have shifted to recovery and repair. "After a battle like this the wounds can run quite deep – eight to 12 inches, in fact," said Director Perovskia. "Other wounds are more superficial and can be fixed more quickly. Fortunately its still early enough in the season that we can get new grass started. We were out just this morning working on lawn patching,"

MEJF crews began demobilization of the mole traps this morning and they were followed by garden repair crews to start work on some of the more visible damage. By mid-day newly seeded and watered lawn patches could be seen across the garden.

"It’s amazing to see how quickly we have shifted our efforts to recovery, now that we know the enemy is dead," said Director Perovskia. "Of course, the return of the fall rains will likely bring to light additional damage, as weakened tunnels cave in and require fixing." Repairing all the damage is expected to continue into next spring.