‘Absolutely destitute of any interesting qualities’: New Hampshire’s beef with groundhogs, explained
Far from celebrating groundhogs, New Hampshire once tried to eradicate them from the state via a short-lived but wildly successful bounty on their pelts.
The state paid $12,206 in groundhog bounty claims for the fiscal year ending June 1885. At 10 cents per pelt, that amounted to more than 120,000 groundhogs — or woodchucks, as they were called then.
The bounty, which was repealed soon after, was the result of a legislative committee appointed to study the critters. Their view was decidedly negative.
Declaring the animals “not only a nuisance, but also a bore,” state Rep. Charles Corning called them “absolutely destitute of any interesting qualities” and “one of the worst enemies ever known to the farmer” in his 1883 “Report of the Woodchuck Committee.
“In some parts of the state it is found necessary to shovel a path through the woodchucks in order to reach the barns,” he added. “This is not right.”
The current groundhog population in New Hampshire is unknown, though they remain a frequent problem for gardeners, according to the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.
Its experts don’t recommend killing them, however, noting that their burrows provide shelter for other animals. Instead, officials recommend fencing as a way to keep them from devouring veggies.
