Prairie dog conservation forced underground

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BY JOE DUGGAN

The federal government's decision not to seek protection for the black-tailed prairie dog Thursday appeased agricultural interests and angered conservation groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it no longer considers the prairie dog a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The service cited updated population surveys in prairie dog states, including Nebraska, that revealed more of the ground squirrels than scientists thought existed several years ago.

"We've acted on the best scientific and commercial information available," said Seth Willey, the service's Endangered Species Act program coordinator in Denver.

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** FILE ** Two black-tailed prarie dogs touch teeth in a gesture of non-aggression known as a "prarie dog kiss," June 28, 2000, at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. The black-tailed prairie dog has been removed from the federal endangered species candidate list, meaing states can do more to control the critters' movement from federal land onto private land, according to officials, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. (AP Photo/The Arizona Daily Star, Chris Richards, File) ** MANDATORY CREDIT **

** FILE ** Two black-tailed prarie dogs touch teeth in a gesture of non-aggression known as a "prarie dog kiss," June 28, 2000, at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. The black-tailed prairie dog has been removed from the federal endangered species candidate list, meaing states can do more to control the critters' movement from federal land onto private land, according to officials, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. (AP Photo/The Arizona Daily Star, Chris Richards, File) ** MANDATORY CREDIT **

The decision will lift the threat of possible private land regulation from Nebraska's farmers and ranchers, said Craig Head, assistant director of government relations for the Nebraska Farm Bureau.

"My first thought is it kind of confirms what a lot of our members were telling us," he said Thursday. "In their minds, there were a lot of prairie dogs out there that weren't accounted for."

A closer examination of the service's science revealed that prairie dogs and other wildlife that rely upon them are still imperiled, said Jonathan Proctor, spokesman for the Predator Conservation Alliance in Bozeman, Mont.

"This is clearly a reckless political decision that puts us back six years," he said. "Now they've changed their mind with no scientific proof behind the decision."

The service's announcement is just the latest controversy in the history of prairie dog conservation.

The service made the prairie dog a candidate for protection in 2000, igniting an uproar among farmers and ranchers who consider the rodents vermin that carry disease and reduce land values with their burrowing. But in an effort to head off a possible threatened species listing and its accompanying federal regulations, interested parties in Nebraska and other states joined task forces to negotiate conservation plans.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, under heavy lobbying from both sides in the issue, voted in 2002 against a proposal to afford prairie dogs limited protection from shooting. The vote also pulled Nebraska out of the multistate conservation effort.

Since then, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been given more accurate population counts from states with prairie dogs. The service now estimates prairie dogs occupy some 1.8 million acres nationally. Their population is estimated at 18 million, said Willey.

In 2000, "the best available information" put the estimated number of acres at 676,000, he said. The improved survey techniques included aerial flyovers, running transects over prairie dog towns and doing on-the-ground counts.

A recently completed aerial survey in Nebraska revealed two to three times the number of prairie-dog acres than biologists had thought existed, said Kirk Nelson, assistant director in charge of wildlife and fisheries.

The survey showed 170,000 acres of active prairie dog colonies, with an additional 100,000 possibly active acres that the agency wanted to verify on foot. Before the survey, the commission estimated there were 60,000 to 80,000 acres of prairie dogs in the state.

"I think we were all surprised at the new information we found with our survey work," Nelson said, adding that the commission does not oppose the service's decision to remove prairie dogs from candidate status.

The new findings jibe with what ranchers have observed on their land for years, said Tom Hansen, a North Platte rancher and president-elect of the Nebraska Cattlemen.

"Where I travel, everybody's got prairie dogs," he said. "I could never understand why they wanted to list it. I think good science finally prevailed."

Thursday's decision means little for the day-to-day management of prairie dogs in Nebraska, which has never restricted shooting or poisoning on public or private land. The Fish and Wildlife Service had banned prairie dog shooting on several dozen public wetlands in the Rainwater Basin. It was unclear Thursday if or when the ban will be lifted.

Even with the new national acreage estimate, prairie dogs occupy less than 2 percent of their historic range, conservationists say. They are considered a keystone species, meaning they help support a number of other wildlife such as black-footed ferrets, burrowing owls and mountain plovers.Wildlife advocates fear Thursday's decision will lead to widespread poisoning and eradication of prairie dogs, Proctor said. In the long run, conservation programs would eliminate the eventual need to protect the species.

"Instead of a simple recovery now, prairie dogs and the animals that rely on them will need even more protection," he said.

The Predator Conservation Alliance and other western conservation groups will meet to consider their response to the service's action, including a possible lawsuit.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@;journalstar.com.