Prairie Dog Conundrum

Friday, February 1, 2002
© 2002 - The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal


City's plan to kill prairie dogs rocks boat

By JOHN FUQUAY
Avalanche-Journal

Hundreds of black-tailed prairie dogs on city-owned land east of Lubbock may be poisoned in a plan to recover grassland used to absorb treated sewage water.

The poisoning would be legal, and often is used on private land, but wildlife conservation groups question whether public money should be used to eradicate a species that is a candidate for federal protection.

''I sure believe in being environmentally friendly,'' John Hindman, land application manager at City Farms, said. ''I just want to protect the land that taxpayers have paid for so it can be used the way it's supposed to.''

David Moldal, the regional organizer for the National Wildlife Federation for Texas, said prairie dog habitat is a vital part of the prairie ecosystem and should be carefully managed to avoid disrupting other species.

''Prairie dogs are a keystone species of our native grasslands,'' Moldal said. ''It's sad at this stage that the state of Texas still classifies prairie dogs as a nuisance species and public funds are used to eradicate them.''

Moldal said prairie dogs are being monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The ground-dwelling rodents occupy only 1 percent of the territory they historically have covered, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and agencies in other states have been charged with devising a plan to stabilize or increase the prairie dog population.

Hindman said the city applies about half an inch of treated sewage effluent every 24 hours on about 170 acres at City Farms east of Loop 289.  One area, southwest of Buffalo Springs Road, has become so heavily grazed by prairie dogs that pivot sprinklers are spraying effluent on bare dirt.

The effluent is municipal sewer water that has been treated to remove most biocontaminants, but it still contains nitrate. Under a permit with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the city applies effluent on pastureland where grasses absorb and dissolve the nitrate.

Without sufficient vegetation, city officials are concerned that nitrate levels will become too high.

The city violated regulatory standards at the site in the late 1980s when nitrate levels rose and contaminated groundwater. The city was ordered to remediate the contamination, and, in some cases, provide bottled water to affected residents who depended on the groundwater.

''They've been out here for several years,'' Hindman said of the prairie dogs.  ''I always heard that they'd disease-out every five years or so, but they never have.  They just keep multiplying.''

Hindman said he is preparing a list of bidders who may be offered a contract with the city to eliminate some of the prairie dogs.  Costs to poison prairie dogs range from $30 to $50 an acre.

Dan Dennison, the city's environmental compliance manager, said prairie dogs are commonly controlled with grain, pellet or chemical poisons. Dennison said grain poison would not be used on City Farms for fear of killing geese that graze on the same land.

By law, any application of poison cannot endanger burrowing owls, which live in abandoned prairie dog burrows.

Hindman said a Texas Tech graduate student has been hired to determine which burrows are occupied by owls.

''If they want to thin out the population, I don't think poisoning would be the way to do it,'' Rob Skinner, environmental chairman of the Sierra Club's Caprock chapter, said.  ''We have a lot of raptors in this area, hawks and owls, that prey on prairie dogs (and) there'd be the possibility of secondary poisoning in non-target species.''

Rob Lee, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service's Lubbock office, said he would not recommend the poisoning without ''a real underlying need.''  He said grass must be growing in the area, otherwise the prairie dogs would leave.

Pat Cooke, an inspector in the TNRCC's Lubbock office, said he did not believe groundwater contamination would occur when soil is bare for short periods.

''It could happen if it were an extended period of time,'' Cooke said, ''but in most cases, when you double crop, that is, you have a winter grass and a summer grass, typically the ground is only unplanted for a short period.''

As an alternative, Lee said, the city might be able to receive state or federal grants to maintain the prairie dog colony and promote City Farms as an example of native prairie habitat.

Moldal said landowners should be careful not to further reduce prairie dog populations.

''What we don't want to happen is for the species to be officially listed and us to lose the opportunity to use good management practices to restore the species,'' he said. ''It doesn't make sense to eradicate this species.''

Hindman said he expected criticism.

''When you talk about poisoning, it's easy for somebody to look at something and criticize,'' he said.  ''But when it's your problem, you see it a little differently.  We try to be a good neighbor out here, and I think we do a good job.''

Hindman said a bid for eradication services would be presented to the City Council before any poisoning begins.

John Fuquay can be contacted at jfuquay@lubbockonline.com or 766-8722

Updated 19 July 2006 .