Question
Dear Jim, Thank you for your quick response . I will look into the arborist's credentials. I have noticed that my neighbor's pine trees are losing an alarming # of needles in my driveway.  My friend said she saw a gopher in my yard . Is this the culprit?? I got a stick that makes noise to ward it off if so . Can you give me any better method? Thank you again.

Answer
Pines will drop needles. Pines have two sets of needles on them and as the newer ones grow the older ones will drop. As long as the needles near the ends of the branches are green the dropping is normal. Any thing that would effect the root system like a gopher would cause all the needles to turn brown on a limb or over all. Gophers damage trees by stem girdling and clipping, root pruning, and possibly root exposure caused by burrowing. IF you are not seeing digging near the trunk it is probabally not gophers. In both their attempt to find food and to sharpen their teeth, gophers girdle trees and shrubs. This means they go to a tree and chew around the bottom circumference of it, much like a ring around a finger. Gophers can cause problems with young smaller tree but as the tree gets larger the root system is extensive and gopher damaging a small % of the system will not effect the tree. You should see signs of the burrowing in the lawn if gophers are there.  

There are no commercially available repellents available for pocket gophers control. Granular formulations of moth crystals (paradichlorobenzene / naphthalene(naftalin)) are used but often prove itself not to be very effective. Attempts have been made to deploy noise making devices and various plants in an effort to control gophers ?however they are considered not to be effective.

Trapping seems to be the best way to control gophers. Here is a web link to information on control methods. http://www.gopherguide.com/