Rodent populations ebb and flow, peaking and crashing in cyclical patterns. But two Oregon fruit production areas have faced especially high vole pressure recently."In 2019-2020, I would say thateveryone was having big problems (in the Willamette Valley)," said Dana Sanchez, an extension wildlife specialist with Oregon State University in Corvallis. That includes tree fruit growers, ranchers and grass seed producers. The fuzzy, round-bodied critters have even broken into nursery greenhouses.During summer 2021, cherry growers in The Dalles called Ashley Thompson, a horticulture extension specialist at Oregon State University, to check out mysterious tree collapses that resembled drought stress. Shaking the trees, she discovered weak roots, but instead of actual root damage, she found bark gnawed away from the trunk, just below the soil surface, with teeth marks too small for a gopher.
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