Are Minnesota's woodchucks a protected animal?

There's an abode in the neighborhood that would be described as, at best, a "fixer-upper." A new neighbor has moved in sometime during the past week or so. We've not spoken yet but today we got a picture as s/he was bringing in some of the materials to make the place more homey.

our new neighbor, Mr. / Ms. Woodchuck

Photo by J. Harrington

According to Minnesota's St. Croix Valley and  Anoka Sandplain, A Guide to Native Habitats, there's no record of woodchucks in Isanti County  (really?), but they are recorded in the other five counties covered, including Chisago. I was surprised to find woodchucks listed under "Squirrels" and not under "Pocket Gophers and Pocket Mice." I was also surprised to find no listing of either woodchuck or gopher in the book's index. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources web site page on woodchucks informs us that they are deemed an unprotected wild animal but, when following the links on the page to the statute language, we learn that gophers, not woodchucks, are listed as unprotected. Further, the linked page on the DNR site is to a historic language version. The Revisor's Office most current (2019) language for the relevant section doesn't list either gopher or woodchuck as an unprotected animal. (There seems to be a similar problem with red squirrels, which don't appear to be listed as either protected nor unprotected.)

one of many red squirrels that live in the neighborhood

Photo by J. Harrington

I'm not sure how much the sources of this confusion lie with the DNR, with whichever legislator(s) were the chief authors of the bills in the House and Senate, or with the Revisor's Office staff. I am sure that it doesn't take a genius to realize that conflicting, vague, ambiguous statutory language doesn't incline the public to respect the regulatory agency involved nor it's employees who are expected to enforce such poorly constructed laws. If you think this posting is unfair, take a look at DNR's own web page guidance on Taking a nuisance animal. Feel free to comment if you find woodchucks, red squirrels or groundhogs listed there. Whatever you do, don't search for Minnesota gophers on Google, Duck Duck Go or any other internet search engine. You'll find yourself trying to drain an athletic swamp.

A Drumlin Woodchuck

One thing has a shelving bank,
Another a rotting plank,
To give it cozier skies
And make up for its lack of size.

My own strategic retreat
Is where two rocks almost meet,
And still more secure and snug,
A two-door burrow I dug.

With those in mind at my back
I can sit forth exposed to attack
As one who shrewdly pretends
That he and the world are friends.

All we who prefer to live
Have a little whistle we give,
And flash, at the least alarm
We dive down under the farm.

We allow some time for guile
And don’t come out for a while
Either to eat or drink.
We take occasion to think.

And if after the hunt goes past
And the double-barreled blast
(Like war and pestilence
And the loss of common sense),

If I can with confidence say
That still for another day,
Or even another year,
I will be there for you, my dear,

It will be because, though small
As measured against the All,
I have been so instinctively thorough
About my crevice and burrow.

-Robert Frost

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