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Escalating Threats Prompt New Push for Black-tailed Prairie Dog Protection
Earlier this month, the Service promised to reconsider federal protection for two other species of prairie dogs, the Gunnison’s prairie dog in the Four Corners area, and the white-tailed prairie dog in the Northern Rockies. For both of these species, the evidence was clear that Julie MacDonald, an Interior official who resigned amidst scandal in May, meddled with petition determinations. Political interference in prairie dog protection decisions is of special concern given the dramatic decline of these animals, their important ecological roles, and intense hostility toward prairie dogs from ranchers and developers.
“The black-tailed prairie dog is caught in a death spiral – it is under increased assault, despite remaining in only 1-2% of its historic area,” stated Dr. Lauren McCain, Director of WildEarth Guardians’ Deserts and Grassland Program. “This species desperately requires the safety net the Endangered Species Act provides.”
The petition submitted today reports increased threats from poisoning and habitat destruction, alongside continued threats from shooting, plague, and the failure of government agencies to provide adequate and enforceable protections for the black-tailed prairie dog from these threats. Since the Service’s 2004 decision not to protect the species, lethal control of black-tailed prairie dogs has sharply increased. South Dakota successfully executed a state-wide poisoning plan and pressured the U.S. Forest Service to poison prairie dogs on federal public land. The U.S. Forest Service and several states have allowed increases in recreational shooting. Colorado recently approved use of the Rodenator-a device that blows up prairie dogs in their burrows, killing and maiming them and any other wildlife that might be in the burrow such as burrowing owls, rabbits, and others. The most common “control” technique is zinc phosphide, a poison that causes an agonizing death by internal hemorrhaging over the course of three days. Counties in Colorado, Kansas, and elsewhere are attempting to wipe out their prairie dog populations completely, and several counties have established funds to subsidize landowners for killing prairie dogs.
“Without Endangered Species Act protection, there will be no end to the suffering prairie dogs experience daily at the hands of humans,” stated McCain. “Now the government is allowing new and more inhumane forms of cruelty. The Rodenator is just one example, and there is a push to allow the use of killing mechanisms that have been outlawed for decades.”
Current populations are fragmented and isolated, tiny remnants of the massive colony complexes once found across the Great Plains from southern Canada through northern Mexico. Of particular concern are the seven large complexes (measuring 10,000 acres or more) that the Service relied upon to avoid federal listing. Since 2004, three of these complexes have been decimated due to plague, drought, livestock overgrazing. Three additional complexes have been subjected to extensive prairie dog poisoning.
“We are losing what’s left of these crown jewels – the last few remaining large black-tailed prairie dog complexes,” stated Dr. Rich Reading, Associate Research Professor of biology at the University of Denver. “If we lose prairie dog complexes we lose wildlife biodiversity. The endangered black-footed ferret, for example, will go extinct without large concentrations of prairie dogs.”
The Service acknowledges that this species is gone from 98% of its historic area but has refused to federally protect the species, arguing exist more acres of occupied habitat exist than previously thought. A key state in this analysis was Colorado, where one report described huge complexes in places such as Fort Collins, Loveland, Boulder, Longmont, Littleton, andLakewood, which are highly developed areas along the Front Range that are much more likely to contain urban sprawl than prairie dog colonies. The petition shows how the state’s estimate was grossly inaccurate and criticized by scientists.
In addition, the Service now argues that plague is not as much of a threat as previous science had indicated. Today’s petition documents that prairie dogs have very little immunity to this nonnative disease, which has had devastating impacts on the species. For instance, prairie dog populations on the Comanche and Pawnee National Grasslands in Colorado, the Thunder BasinNational Grassland in Wyoming, the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and Service andBLM lands in Montana have been slashed over the past several years from plague.
Not granting Endangered Species Act protection to the black-tailed prairie dog continues to put a host of other wildlife species in peril. Many animals eat prairie dogs. Several use prairie dog burrows for shelter, nesting, and breeding. Other animals are attracted to prairie dog colonies because of the unique habitat colonies provide. Black-footed ferrets, one of North Americas most endangered animals, relies on prairie dogs almost exclusively for food and lives in prairie dog burrows.
“Prairie dogs are like the canary in the coal mine,” said Dr. Rich Reading, Associate ResearchProfessor of biology at the University of Denver. “The prairie dog is what’s known as a keystone species. When prairie dogs disappear, with them go the hawks, owls, foxes, ferrets, songbirds, and other animals that depend on them. Many of these animals are already imperiled.Protecting the black-tailed prairie dog will help restore the natural balance.”
Background
The black-tailed prairie dog was originally petitioned for ESA protection by multiple groups in1998. In response to the petitions and litigation by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, in 2000, the Secretary declared the black-tailed prairie dog “warranted” for listing as a Threatened species but that the Secretary was “precluded” from actually listing and protecting the species by more urgent concerns. The species was then placed on the candidate list for species awaitingESA protection, where it remained until August 2004, when the Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly determined that it did not warrant. The day after the Service removed the species from the candidate list, South Dakota announced its mass extermination campaign in the Conata Basin, home to one of the two viable black-footed ferret populations remaining in the wild. The state also announced state-wide plans for prairie dog extermination, despite South Dakota’s status as one of the last remaining strongholds of the species.
The government succumbed to pressure from the livestock industry and land developers, traditional enemies of prairie dog conservation, to allow more prairie dog eradication instead of needed protection. The Bush administration and its appointees within the Department of Interior have consistently sided with industry over the nation’s wildlife and were clear opponents of prairie dog listing. Not one species has been listed under the ESA in the fourteen months that Dirk Kempthorne has been Interior Secretary. Not one species has been listed under the George W. Bush administration without citizen petitions or litigation.
There are five species of prairie dogs, and prairie dogs are unique to North America. Two species, the Utah and Mexican prairie dogs, were listed when the ESA was originally passed. All of the other three species – the black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnison’s prairie dogs – have been petitioned for listing. Despite producing a brochure in the 1990s recognizing that protection for prairie dogs could provide safeguards for the ecosystems they create and sustain, the Service has refused to list any prairie dogs over the past thirty years.
There is broad consensus that black-tailed prairie dogs play “keystone” roles in the ecosystems they create and sustain due to their extensive burrow systems, the prey base they provide, and their modification of plant communities. Recent research indicates they should be considered “highly interactive species” which should not only be saved from extinction, but recovered in high enough numbers across a broad geographical distribution in order to continue playing their important ecological roles.