Seeing chipmunks scurrying around? While you might be tempted to trap and relocate them, moving them is not a humane solution, especially during the cold months. Chipmunks spend the fall collecting nuts and acorns that they have stored in their burrow to keep them alive in winter. When you relocate a chipmunk, you take it away from its hard-earned stash of winter food, leaving it to starve. Other than making a couple of small holes in your yard, they don’t mean you any harm and are simply trying to survive.
Please don’t relocate ANY wildlife in winter. They have food sources mapped out and stored away. If they are moved, they lose the safety and warmth of their burrow or den and run the very real risk of starving and becoming food for predators.
Photo by For Fox Sakes Wildlife Rescue
Wood and Field 
While local cats and the fox family keep our chipmunk population within reasonable levels, the Chippies here have been established for decades, so their underground complex is extensive and quite amazing! I love this illustration by Meg Sodano: https://msodanoillustration.com/2015/03/19/a-peek-inside-a-chipmunk-burrow/
But here’s a bigger question… Why anyone would dump their unwanted animals somewhere else is quite beyond me… I mean, if YOU don’t want them near your home, why on earth would anyone else?? The same applies for those who take their pregnant cats/ kittens or, less often dogs & puppies, and drop them off near farm buildings. Although definitely better than disposing of them like garbage and – speaking as one who experienced this – quite traumatic for the children who might find them several days later, in a green plastic bag, simply tossed in the ditch…
Spay/ neutering is a part of Responsible Pet Ownership. Sorry, off topic, but not…
It’s sad how irresponsible people can be, both with unwanted wildlife and domestic dogs and cats. We, as a society, have a ways to go to embrace humane solutions to problems, many of which, we created.