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MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Dr. James F. Hare, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Stanley, MB, has a trap-centric gopher control program while the City of Winnipeg has adopted a new controversial poison-centric program. With Stanley, MB’s, program, youth are encouraged to capture gophers (generally with traps but sometimes by marksmanship) and hand in the tails for a reward. Local biologist James Hare suggests that Stanley, MB’s, program is more humane (though he has some criticisms of it), and the story touches on the iconic prairie history of gophers and gopher control. Reporter: Conrad Sweatman 260427 - Monday, April 27, 2026.