Prairie Dogs Poisoned - Whole Colonies Wiped Out!

by Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:16 pm

Prairie Dogs are being poisoned and shot by the thousands. What these MORONS don't realize is the very prairie that cattle graze on DEPEND on healthy grassland. Prairie Dogs keep the grassland healthy. I keep hearing we "have to shoot them b/c cattle are breaking legs", or "it is my right to shoot for sport and wipe out whole species". Hunt deer/elk etc for food for your freezer, yes! But slaughter a colony of intelligent familial animals for fun and sport, is this how utterly stupid we have become?

July 27, 2010
Prairie Dogs Have Their Day

Relocation project literally breaks ground to save them

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Prairie dogs communicate with a complex set of sounds and body language. Russell Graves
Lindsey Sterling Krank escorts a prairie dog to a new, safe home. The relocation project tests a new approach to helping this keystone species. Dave Showalter
Disease, predators, and poisoning threaten the watchful prairie dog. Dave Showalter
World Wildlife Fund's Kristy Bly loads prairie dogs onto the truck, shading them from the intense prairie sun. Dave Showalter
The endangered black-footed ferret depends heavily on prairie dogs, as do other animals. Dave Showalter
Team members carefully transfer a prairie dog to an acclimation cage at the new site. Dave Showalter
Jonathan Proctor checks the behavior of a recently relocated prairie dog. Dave Showalter
When a predator leaves the area, prairie dogs share the good news with a "jump yip." Russell Graves
Besides saving prairie dogs, this project is a new approach to sustaining healthy grassland ecosystems. Russell Graves

by Ruthanne Johnson

The stars may finally be aligning for black-tailed prairie dogs.

Historically considered pests, the targets of poisoning and sport shooting, these native animals are gaining the respect of scientists and wildlife agents in federal grasslands, where colonies of prairie dogs support a myriad of species in decline: burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, mountain plovers, swift foxes, and North America's most endangered mammal, the black-footed ferret.

This year, a new team of federal agencies and conservation organizations, including The HSUS, are relocating prairie dogs destined for poisoning on two sites considered too close to private land. Team members are spending the summer transferring the animals to a protected area of Wyoming's Thunder Basin National Grassland. The HSUS is a major player in this project, offering funding, on-site training, equipment, and supplies.

This relocation is the first of its kind on U.S. Forest Service land, raising hopes for future generations of prairie dogs.
Struggling populations in shrinking territory

Once prevalent across the Great Plains, prairie dog populations plummeted by 95 percent after decades of persecution, habitat loss, death from sylvatic plague—even capture for the pet trade. Today, they occupy 2 to 8 percent of their historic ranges, which once spread over vast areas in 12 states and parts of Mexico and Canada. Many scientists believe that without conservation efforts, they could soon disappear.

"Prairie dogs are an adaptive species," says Lindsey Sterling Krank, director of the Prairie Dog Coalition, a program of The HSUS. People often think these creatures are impervious to extinction, she says, but they're not. "They are in peril and need help—as do all the species dependent on prairie dog colonies."

"Conserving prairie dogs should matter to people," Sterling Krank says. "That's part of our duty."

After moving the prairie dogs, the Forest Service will build a fence to prevent cattle from grazing in a buffer zone. Prairie dogs avoid tall grass because they can't see predators, so they should stay out of the ungrazed area. The relocated colonies should also increase habitat in Thunder Basin's black-footed ferret recovery zone, where Forest Service agents say they hope to reintroduce ferrets as soon as 2011.

The black-footed ferret needs at least 10,000 acres of prairie dog habitat for successful recovery in an area, says Jonathan Proctor, Rocky Mountain Region Representative for Defenders of Wildlife. About 15 years ago, there were seven such prairie dog complexes across the Great Plains, but all have declined significantly. Thunder Basin was one of those complexes; plague shrank prairie dog territory from 21,456 acres in 2001 to little more than 3,000 acres in 2007.
A new approach

With prairie dog colonies weakened by plague, poisoning seems particularly reckless.

"When [prairie dogs] are poisoned, they're gone," says Cristi Painter, wildlife biologist for the Forest Service in Wyoming's Douglas Ranger District. "We are trying to create a long-term solution."

To keep plague at bay, the Forest Service dusts prairie dog colonies to kill fleas that carry the disease. They conduct controlled burns to encourage expansion into the resulting lower grasses. They construct visual buffers to discourage growth into areas where they are not wanted. Rebounding prairie dog colonies in Thunder Basin will bring the Forest Service closer to black-footed ferret reintroduction.

"Conserving prairie dogs should matter to people because it's preserving their natural heritage and their grandkids' natural heritage," Sterling Krank says. "That's part of our duty."

The prairie dog relocation in Thunder Basin National Grassland is a collaborative effort by the U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Ruthanne Johnson is a staff writer for All Animals magazine.

The prairie dog has a special place in the hearts of western folks, and a special place in nature as a key species necessary for other wildlife including ferruginous hawk, burrowing owls, swift foxes, badgers, and others. The prairie dog is a Forest Service Sensitive Species, and we need strong protections for prairie dogs and their habitat, so much of which has been lost due to past poisoning campaigns. We need decisions concerning their management to be based on science, not politics, and the scientific evidence is clear that prairie dogs and their habitat are an essential part of the grassland ecosystem. The Thunder Basin National Grassland Prairie Dog Management Strategy is Really Just an Increase in Poisoning:

The current Thunder Basin management plan only allows prairie dog extermination in cases where prairie dogs are overrunning cemeteries or buildings.
The proposed amendment would expand the use of poisoning and other lethal means of control to the entire National Grassland – even in areas designated for the reintroduction of the endangered black-footed ferret!

We need you to speak out in favor of protecting the prairie dog, which is the key strand that holds together the grassland ecosystem.
Prairie Dogs are Disappearing
Nine wildlife species are directly affected by the decline of the prairie dog population. What we do to the prairie dog affects all these other animals. Over the last 150 years, prairie dogs have declined by over 95%. Declines continue today. During the last 15 years, there has been a further 60% decrease of large prairie dog complexes. Four of the seven largest complexes have been decimated. Although prairie dogs are visible on the landscape and many small towns have increased, many more have declined or vanished. For example, last year alone, almost all of the 100,000 acres on Pine Ridge Reservation vanished, a colony larger than all Front Range colonies combined. Prairie Dogs are a Keystone Species
Prairie dogs are a key species to nine other species, such as hawks and owls, foxes and ferrets, and many others that depend on prairie dogs for food, or their burrows for shelter. If we want all these Great Plains species to survive, we need a healthy prairie dog population. Prairie dogs are like a canary in the coalmine. If their population declines and dies out, others will soon follow. The loss of prairie dogs has implications that go beyond just having a thriving prairie dog population.

Poisoning is Cruel and Inhumane
Poisoning our wildlife, including prairie dogs, is cruel and inhumane. Poison causes death by internal bleeding that can take up to 72 hours. We must stop sending the message that it is okay to poison our native wildlife and destroy our natural heritage to accommodate commercial interests. Land managers are proposing methods to kill prairie dogs that have been outlawed for use on dogs, cats, and other pets years ago.

This is about Balance
Prairie dogs exist on less than 1% of the Great Plains. Scientists say that if this downward trend continues burrowing owls, black-footed ferrets, and other wildlife will disappear too. As good stewards of the land, we need to ensure healthy populations of wildlife for our future generations.

TELL THE FOREST SERVICE TO DISCONTINUE POISONING TO MANAGE PRAIRIE DOGS

They should NOT be Poisoning Wildlife on Our Public Lands.
Most Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to scatter dangerous poisons across the landscape. Other animals, such as burrowing owls, rabbits, and songbirds, are likely to be killed by residual poison. Poisoning is cruel and inhumane, and requires that poisons be reapplied on a regular basis, continually adding these dangerous chemicals into our environment. Poisoning prairie dogs turns our public lands into killing fields and their own burrows into torture chambers and graveyards.
Translocate instead of Killing Prairie Dogs
Translocating prairie dogs to other sites and implementing other non-lethal alternatives provide a better alternative to using poisons.If the Forest Service feels it must remove prairie dogs to accommodate the whims of grazing permittees, this should be done using non-lethal means that allow struggling populations to be built up elsewhere.
No Prairie Dog Killing in Ferret Recovery Areas
Science has long since established that black-footed ferrets depend almost exclusively on healthy and robust prairie dog populations. Poisoning praiirie dogs in ferret recovery areas would threatens the survival of the most endangered land mammal in the western hemisphere.
Science, NOT Politics Must Guide Decisions
Decisions about protecting wildlife such as prairie dogs need to be made on the basis of sound science and research, not politics. Scientists agree that the population of prairie dogs is declining rapidly, and is now only 5% of what it was over a century ago. Scientists agree that prairie dogs are a key species on which so many others are dependent for survival. Should the prairie dog disappear, many other species will be threatened. The Forest Service must not undertake a major expansion of prairie dog poisoning just because a small but influential group of ranchers demands it; the agency has a responsibility to promote multiple use on its lands, including maintaining native wildlife.
The Area Where Prairie Dog Shooting is Banned Should be Expanded, Not Reduced
In the current land-use plan, 58,000 acres have been set aside as a “no shooting” area for prairie dogs in order to foster black-footed ferret recovery. The new plan amendment would reduce the acreage where shooting is prohibited, and craft new boundaries that would make it harder for shooters to recognize closure areas. Prairie dog shooters can blow away hundreds of prairie dogs in a single day, decimating colonies. In addition, a recent University of Wyoming study shows that the stress associated with shooting causes the prairie dogs that survive to decline in health and experience reduced pup survival. Tell the Forest Service to maintain of increase the area on the National Grassland where this wasteful practice is banned.
The Proposed Poisoning Plan is Bad for Wildlife
The current “Prairie Dog Management Plan” is a win-lose proposition: Livestock interests win, and native wildlife loses. The Forest Service needs to craft a balanced plan that balances the private interests of grazing permittees (who graze our public lands at a tiny fraction of the price of leasing private grazing land) with the public interest in maintaining and promoting the viability of rare native wildlife. In addition, tell the Forest Service that your tax money shouldn’t be used to poison native wildlife. There needs to be an alternative where prairie dog losses are completely offset by expansion elsewhere on the Grassland.

SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO THE RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL AND YOUR CONGRESSMAN:

Mary H. Peterson, Forest Supervisor
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests
Thunder Basin National Grassland
Douglas Ranger District
2250 East Richards Street
Douglas, WY 82633
Attention: Marilee Houtler
Comments may be Faxed to:
307-358-3072

Email Comments to:
comments-rocky-mountain-medicine-bow-routt-douglas-thunder-basin@fs.fed.us