The BulleTin • Thursday, april 15, 2021 A13
Rockchucks: Infestation worse this year
Continued from A1
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
A rockchuck sits near its burrow at Hugh Hartman Elementary School in Redmond on Wednesday.
The marmots emerge from hi-
bernation the last week of February
through the first week of March, ac-
cording to the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife.
The rockchucks create holes that
cause tripping hazards, and their fe-
ces can spread disease such as salmo-
nella, according to wildlife officials.
“Now that the students are back,
we have found the rockchucks are
also back,” Miller said.
This year, the rockchuck infesta-
tion is more widespread. Their feces
and dug-out holes have been spot-
ted at Redmond High School and
Ridgeview High School, in addition
to the elementary school.
The school district is planning to
work with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Wildlife Services De-
partment, which will have a wild-
life specialist exterminate the rock-
chucks by fumigating their burrows.
The specialist places gas cartridges
in the burrows, which give off car-
bon monoxide.
This time, the work will be done
early enough in the season to catch
rockchucks before they start hiber-
nating again at the end of July, ac-
cording to wildlife officials.
“Right now is when they all start
showing back up,” Miller said.
“Hopefully, we can get it done early
enough that it will be effective this
season.”
Rockchucks are the largest squir-
rels in Oregon and are known for
being plump and larger than other
marmots. They are often seen on
rocks throughout the Old Mill Dis-
trict in Bend.
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7820,
kspurr@bendbulletin.com
WORLD BRIEFING
Minnesota officer who resigned
now charged in shooting
A white former suburban Min-
neapolis police officer was charged
Wednesday with second-degree man-
slaughter for killing 20-year-old Black
motorist Daunte Wright in a shooting
that ignited days of unrest and clashes
between protesters
and police.
The charge
against former
Brooklyn Center po-
lice Officer Kim Pot-
ter was filed three
days after Wright
Potter
was killed during a
traffic stop and as
the nearby murder trial progresses
for the ex-officer charged with killing
George Floyd last May.
The former Brooklyn Center police
chief has said that Potter, a 26-year
veteran and training officer, intended
to use her Taser on Wright but fired
her handgun instead. However, pro-
testers and Wright’s family members
say there’s no excuse for the shooting
and that it shows how the justice sys-
tem is tilted against Blacks, noting
Wright was stopped for an expired car
registration and ended up dead.
Intent isn’t a necessary component
of second-degree manslaughter in
Minnesota. The charge carries a max-
imum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Potter, 48, posted $100,000 bond
Wednesday evening and was sched-
uled to make her initial court appear-
ance Thursday. Potter and Police Chief
Tim Gannon both resigned Tuesday.
Humanitarian crisis feared
in St. Vincent amid eruptions
Ongoing volcanic eruptions have dis-
placed about 20% of people in the east-
ern Caribbean island of St. Vincent as a
U.N. official on Wednesday warned of a
growing humanitarian crisis.
Between 16,000 to 20,000 people
were evacuated under government or-
ders before La Soufriere volcano first
erupted Friday, covering the lush green
island with ash that continues to blan-
ket communities in St. Vincent as well
as Barbados and other nearby islands.
About 6,000 of those evacuees are
considered most vulnerable, said Di-
dier Trebucq, United Nations resident
coordinator for Barbados and the
Eastern Caribbean.
“So we are facing a situation with
a great deal of uncertainty, and also
a humanitarian crisis that is grow-
ing and may continue for weeks and
months,” he said.
Trebucq said that based on certain
information and preliminary estima-
tions, 20,000 people are “estimated at
risk of food insecurity, given the loss
of the assets in terms of livelihood like
fisheries, or agriculture.”
Volcanic activity is expected to con-
tinue for days or even weeks. The vol-
cano had a minor eruption in Decem-
ber after a previous eruption in 1979.
An older eruption in 1902 killed some
1,600 people.
At least one killed after ship
capsizes off Louisiana’s coast
Coast Guard boats and aircraft have
covered an area larger than the state of
Rhode Island to search for 12 people
missing Wednesday off the Louisiana
coast after their offshore oilfield vessel
capsized in hurricane-force winds.
One worker’s body was recovered
Wednesday and six people were res-
cued Tuesday after the Seacor Power
U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard Cutter Glenn Harris via AP
A Coast Guard crew heads toward a capsized 175-foot commercial lift boat to search
for people in the water 8 miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana.
overturned Tuesday afternoon in the
Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.
The search, interrupted by darkness
and bad weather, has covered more
than 1,440 square miles of Gulf waters
by Wednesday afternoon, according
to a news release. The hunt for the
missing continued into the evening,
said Petty Officer Carlos Galarza.
The bulky vessel, also called a jackup
rig because it has three long legs it can
lower to the sea floor to lift the boat out
of the water as an offshore platform,
flipped over Tuesday afternoon south
of Port Fourchon, a major base for the
U.S. oil and gas industry.
One worker was found dead on the
surface of the water, Watson said at a
news conference Wednesday.
— Bulletin wire reports
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