No Federal Shield for Prairie Dogs -- "Endangered" Consideration Rejected
 

August 13, 2004
The Denver Post

By Theo Stein

The black-tailed prairie dog has been removed as a candidate for endangered-species protection after new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates show that 18 million of the colony-dwelling rodents now inhabit broad swaths of prairie from Montana to Texas.

  Agency biologists said they made their decision based on recent studies by 10 states and several tribes showing that active prairie dog colonies covered 1.8 million acres - three times the agency's 2000 estimate.

  Local prairie dog populations still suffer major fluctuations because of plague and poisons, but that doesn't appear to affect the species' persistence across its range, biologists said.

  "We're not saying the species is recovered," said Pete Grober, a biologist in the agency's South Dakota office. "We have new information to indicate it should not have been on candidate- species list."

  The stout little ground squirrels have become a cause celebre along the Front Range, where colonies persist in fragmented grasslands near residential subdivisions.

  Together with bison, the black-tailed prairie dog is considered a keystone species of the Great Plains shortgrass prairie.

  Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, whose administration has argued the prairie dog is abundant in the state, applauded the move as a "victory for sound science."

  A 2002 study by the Colorado Division of Wildlife found 631,000 acres of occupied prairie dog colonies, seven times more than federal biologists had estimated. State biologists will resurvey eastern Colorado in 2005.

  Environmental groups that petitioned the government to protect the prairie dog denounced the decision.

  "We recognize there has been some progress by the states," said Sterling Miller, a senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. "However, we are greatly concerned that that progress will halt or be reversed without the incentive of a potential listing."

  On Thursday, South Dakota governor Mike Rounds said the decision will help the state to "control the infestation of prairie dogs" on federal lands.

  Colorado has spent $1 million enrolling 20,000 acres of private land in conservation agreements to benefit the prairie dog, swift fox, ferruginous hawk and pronghorn, which also need shortgrass prairie.

  Some environmentalists noted that massive prairie dog poisoning still occurs in Colorado and questioned the Division of Wildlife population estimates.

  "When I went to southeast Colorado this spring, I saw entire colonies completely dead from plague or poisoning," said Jonathan Proctor of the Predator Conservation Alliance. "The situation looked incredibly 
bleak."

  The Fish and Wildlife Service placed the prairie dog on the candidate-species list four years ago, meaning the species needed protection but the agency had higher priorities.

Staff writer Theo Stein can be reached at 303-820-1657 or tstein@denverpost.com . 



http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/08/13/news/state/top/news01.txt 

Officials praise prairie-dog ruling

By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer

PIERRE — Gov. Mike Rounds may have made the first announcement Thursday, but past and present members of South Dakota's congressional delegation soon chimed in to praise a federal decision that will allow more control of prairie dogs.

All took credit to some degree for the decision.

The U.S. Interior Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the black-tailed prairie dog is being removed from the endangered species candidate list.

Rounds issued a news release before the Interior Department made a formal announcement. He noted that he recently sent a letter to President Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton asking that the prairie dog be removed from the list.

"We have been working on the prairie dog issue from the first day I took office," Rounds said. "I am very pleased that President Bush and Secretary Norton have responded to my letter and taken the first step to address this critical issue, which is threatening the way of life for ranchers in western South Dakota."

Sens. Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth, all Democrats, said they are pleased that the Interior Department responded to their requests.

Former Republican Rep. John Thune, who is challenging Daschle in this year's Senate race, said the decision was long overdue. At Thune's invitation, Norton attended a meeting in western South Dakota two years to discuss prairie dogs.

"Obviously, I'm thrilled that they've finally come to that decision, but it's amazing all the machinations they had to go through to get there," Thune said. "There's no question in anybody's mind but what there is an abundance of prairie dogs in South Dakota."

Daschle said he met with Norton on May 20 to ask her to remove the prairie dog from the list of candidates being considered as endangered species. He said he told Norton new evidence showed that prairie dog numbers were higher than previously estimated.

Daschle said that after that meeting, Norton's staff pledged that a decision would be made by August.

"The ranchers and farmers of South Dakota know that the prairie dog is far from endangered," Daschle said in a statement.

"We have been waiting for the Department of Interior to make this decision, and I am pleased that Secretary Norton followed through on her commitment to me to make the decision by August and that she has finally agreed to make the commonsense decision to remove the prairie dog from the candidate list," Daschle said.

Johnson said he asked during a June 23 Senate committee hearing that the prairie dog be removed from the list.

"I am pleased that we can move forward with the commonsense management of the black-tailed prairie dog," Johnson said in a statement. "Through coordinated efforts we can strike the right balance, effectively controlling prairie dogs while ensuring that the species is not decimated from all public lands."

Herseth said she wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on July 23 to ask that the prairie dog be removed from the list. She thanked Daschle, Johnson and Rounds for their leadership on the issue.

"This announcement is a victory for South Dakota," Herseth said. "I am pleased that the Department of the Interior has been responsive to our concerns and acted to correct this temporary instance of regulation triumphing over common sense. Anyone who has been on a ranch in South Dakota knows that prairie dogs are far from endangered."

Thune said he believes the federal decision was delayed because officials had to deal with some requirements of the Endangered Species Act. "I think that law is fundamentally flawed, and it ought to be reformed," he said.

Some representatives of environmental groups said Thursday's decision appeared to be motivated by politics more than by science.

But Thune said scientific evidence clearly supports the decision to remove the black-tailed prairie dog from the list of candidates for endangered species.

"The environmental groups obviously haven't spent much time in western South Dakota," Thune said.

Copyright © 2004 The Rapid City Journal
  Rapid City, SD


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN_21_3107817,00.html 

Rocky Mountain News

Prairie dogs won't make the list

Critters don't meet endangered criteria, federal agency says

By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News
August 13, 2004

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday it intends to drop the black-tailed prairie dog for consideration on the endangered species list.

The agency said that based on information submitted by wildlife officials in 11 states including Colorado, the black-tailed prairie dog is not likely to become an endangered species in the foreseeable future.

"With new information regarding the range-wide impact of disease, chemical control and other lesser factors and recent state estimates of occupied black-tailed prairie dog habitat, the service has determined that the black-tailed prairie dog does not meet the Endangered Species Act's definition of 'threatened'," said Ralph Morgenweck, director of the service's region headquartered in Lakewood.

Although it seems there are tons of prairie dogs, especially in the Denver area, it belies the fact that the number today is about 2 percent of the historic total.

In the late 1990s, the National Wildlife Federation petitioned for federal protection and in 2000, federal wildlife officials declared protection as "warranted, but precluded," meaning the animals needed watching, but because of limited resources and an abundance of other more imperiled species to worry about, they wouldn't be listed.

However, still under the shadow of the "big hammer" of the Endangered Species Act, which would place control in federal rather than state hands, the state governments went to work on their own conservation plans.

Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said, "We took a 'grasslands conservation strategy' approach to protect not only prairie dogs but a lot of other species that count on the prairie for their existence."

He said the state has a multimillion-dollar grassland conservation program offering money to landowners to protect grasslands, and it put 20,000 acres of land under protection last year, its first in existence.

Sterling Miller, a senior wildlife biologist at the National Wildlife Federation, said the federal ruling is a bad decision.

"The black-tailed prairie dog hasn't made enough progress to ensure that it won't become endangered when the threat of a listing under the Endangered Species Act is removed," he said.

Four environmental groups in Colorado and Wyoming criticized the move, saying it was reckless and biologically unsound.

"This politically motivated decision will condemn the prairie dog to a bleak future," said Lauren McCain of Forest Guardians.

"The black-tailed prairie dog is slipping away, as is a slew of wildlife associated with prairie dog towns."

Black-tailed prairie dogs are found east of the continental divide in the states of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. They have disappeared in Arizona.

gerhardtg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5202

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.


http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/08/13/news/wyoming/6b14d16307f4093a87256eef00073679.txt 

Feds won't list prairie dog as endangered
From staff and wire reports

The black-tailed prairie dog has been dropped from the federal endangered species candidate list, a move embraced by farmers and ranchers but which some conservationists decried as a mistake.

Government officials and interest groups announced Wednesday that the prairie dog had been removed from consideration for listing as an endangered species.

The move is good news for Wyoming farmers and ranchers, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.

"It removes the threat of regulatory restrictions," Magagna said in a phone interview from Denver.

Magagna said he believes the decision is based on intense inventories of the black-tailed prairie dog across the West. Those inventories showed that the animal's numbers are higher than originally believed when it was put on the candidate list.

"I think it is a good example that the Endangered Species Act process is working and they are responding to new information appropriately," Magagna said.

But some conservationists disagree. Jeff Kessler of Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance contends that the information that led to the candidate listing was "sound science." The species is under great pressure in Wyoming due to habitat loss through mineral and housing development.

"We believe this is a step in the wrong direction," Kessler said. "Now, (the black-tailed prairie dog) is not a priority at all. It's gone from the Endangered Species Act process."

The prairie dog is a "keystone" species, which means many other animals and even vegetation benefit from being near black-tailed prairie dog populations.

"It's an integral part of the prairie ecosystem," Kessler said. "Who are we to say what species is dispensable and shouldn't be a part of Wyoming's future?"

The decision to not extend endangered protection to prairie dogs will help ranchers whose land has been damaged by the rodents, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds said Thursday.

"This will allow us to take a much more proactive approach in controlling the infestation of prairie dogs from federal lands onto private lands," Rounds said in a written statement.

Several Western states have worked for years to come up with their own management plans so the prairie dog would not be placed on the federal endangered species list.

A spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation, which requested the listing in 1999, said the organization believes the federal decision is a mistake that will allow states to give prairie dogs less protection than they had been planning to provide.

The NWF will not decide whether to challenge the federal decision in court until it has taken a hard look at the U.S. Interior Department's justifications for removing the prairie dog from the endangered species candidate list, said Sterling Miller, senior biologist for the NWF in Missoula, Mont.

"Based on the evidence we've seen so far, we think it's a bad decision," Miller said.

Rounds' office quoted Interior Secretary Gale Norton as saying scientists have concluded that 18 million prairie dogs exist on the Western Plains.

"Two years ago, almost to the day, I attended a town meeting in Rapid City where I heard the concerns of South Dakotans on this important issue," Norton said. "As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, states and others have worked cooperatively to collect data on the status of black-tailed prairie dogs throughout much of the Western Plains."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regional office in Lakewood, Colo., said Thursday that a formal notice of the decision was being submitted for publication in the Federal Register.

Colonies of prairie dogs once were found on up to 100 million acres from Canada to Mexico, but the population has dwindled through much of that range because of disease, eradication programs and urban sprawl.

In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the prairie dog warranted listing as a threatened species but the agency did not have the resources to pursue the listing. After the finding, virtually all prairie dog control stopped on federal land.

On the Net:

http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/btprairiedog/ 


http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2004/08/13/news/state/sta01.txt 

Prairie dogs not listed as endangered
By RICHARD HINTON, Bismarck Tribune

Black-tailed prairie dogs, including North Dakota's estimated population of 200,000, no longer are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Citing updated census numbers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the announcement Thursday.

"I think overall, it's a pretty good thing," said Steve Dyke, conservation supervisor for the state Game and Fish Department. "The process led us down a trail that made 11 states go out and survey (prairie dogs), and the census and work showed the prairie dog is in OK shape."

Prairie dogs occupy an estimated 1,842,000 acres in the United States, the USFWS said in a statement. In 2000, its best available information indicated 676,000 acres of occupied habitat.

North Dakota has 20,000 acres of prairie dog towns, Dyke said, with an estimated average of 10 dogs per acre, according to the census it completed last year.

Although some states toughened rules on recreational shooting, North Dakota kept the status quo, Dyke said.

Black-tailed prairie dogs are small ground squirrels that are 14 to 17 inches long and weigh 1 to 3 pounds. They are diurnal, burrowing animals that live in colonies. Numerous other species are dependent on the prairie dog, including the black-footed ferret, swift fox, mountain plover, ferruginous hawk and burrowing owl.

The National Wildlife Federation, which sought the prairie dog's listing in 1998, could not be reached for comment. Its offices in Reston, Va., were closed for the day.

Mike Donahue, a lobbyist for the NWF's state affiliate, said the North Dakota Wildlife Federation opposed the national group's efforts get the prairie dog listed.

"So we support the decision, I suppose," he said.

(Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or outdoors@bismarcktribune.net.) 



http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/science/article/0,1713,BDC_2432_3108192,00.html 

The Daily Camera

Prairie dogs off federal protection list

Local management won't be impacted

By Todd Neff, Camera Staff Writer
August 13, 2004

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the black-tailed prairie dog from the list of candidates for endangered-species designation Thursday.

  The move came, the agency said, because the animal no longer meets the Endangered Species Act's definition of "threatened."





While environmental advocates criticized the decision, it likely will not change how the city of Boulder and Boulder County manage prairie dogs, officials said.

  The black-tailed prairie dog is the burrowing rodent familiar to local grasslands. It was added to the list of candidates for Endangered Species Act protection in 2000 for reasons including habitat loss, plague and failure to regulate hunting or poisoning of the animals.  After the finding, virtually all prairie dog control stopped on federal land.

  Prairie dogs remained on the list following a 2002 review, said Seth Willey, a Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act program coordinator based in Lakewood.

  Willey said new information — most significantly higher estimates from 10 Western states on the amount of land occupied by prairie dogs — led to their removal from the list. The Wildlife Service also said new data suggests the animals are better able to withstand plague and chemical control than previously believed.

  The Wildlife Service estimate that approximately 1.8 million acres of prairie-dog habitat exist in the United States — not the 676,000 acres believed to exist as of 2000. The agency also estimates there are an average of 10 prairie dogs per habitable acre.

  Willey said Colorado has a large prairie-dog population, with about 600,000 acres of land occupied by the animals.

  Prairie dogs once roamed 100 million acres of North America. They are a key part of the prairie ecosystem, providing nourishment to everything from birds of prey to black-footed ferrets. They also create habitat for burrowing owls and boost plant diversity, according to the Wildlife Service.

  Jacob Smith, executive director of Denver's Center for Native Ecosystems, slammed the decision.

  "It's wildly inconsistent with the science and political pandering at its worst," he said.

  The Wildlife Service move, he said, opens the door to new threats, as demonstrated by South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds' comments Thursday.

  In a statement, Rounds praised President Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton for the action and said, "By removing the prairie dog from the candidate list, this will allow us to take a much more proactive approach in controlling the infestation of prairie dogs from federal lands onto private lands."

  Cathy Vaughn-Grabowski, spokeswoman for city of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, said the city didn't expect the decision to have "any significant impact" on its prairie dog management programs.

  "We're still interested, of course, in protecting the species," she said.

  Boulder County's prairie-dog plans probably won't be affected, either, said Ron Stewart, county commissioner and director of Boulder County Parks and Open Space.

  Stewart said the county's grassland management plan, which includes prairie-dog management, predates the Wildlife Service's placement of the animal on its list of endangered-species candidates.

Updated 19 July 2006 .