Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Interior Secretary Continues to Oppose Prairie Dog Protection

Salazar Appeals Court Loss Over Gunnison’s Prairie Dog
Contact: Nicole Rosmarino 505 699-7404

Phoenix, AZ – Nov. 23. Last Friday, InteriorSecretary Ken Salazar appealed a court loss over Endangered Species Act (ESA)protection for the Gunnison’s prairie dog. In a lawsuit brought by WildEarthGuardians, a federal court in Arizona had decided on September 30 that theInterior Secretary violated the law when he found that only those Gunnison’sprairie dogs located in montane habitat warranted ESA listing and those inlower-elevation prairie habitat did not. The government lost on the same legalpoint in Montana on August 5, over the delisting of gray wolves in all NorthernRockies states except Wyoming.

Prairie dogs and wolves are among the mostpersecuted wildlife species in North America by the ranching industry.

“First wolves, then prairie dogs, it’s clear thatMr. Salazar takes his cowboy hat seriously: he is making decisions based onrancher prejudice against wildlife rather than on science and the law,” statedDr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. “We think it’s irresponsible ofSecretary Salazar to fight legal protections for these endangered animalsrather than live up to his duty to fight the extinction crisis by upholding theEndangered Species Act.”

The law specifies that a full species, subspecies,or distinct population of vertebrate wildlife can be listed, and species facinga threat in a “significant portion of range” are listed throughout their fullrange. But with controversial wildlife species, such as rodents and wolves, Mr.Salazar has invented new ways of dodging political bullets: protections for theNorthern Rockies gray wolf and Preble’s meadow jumping mouse were drawn alongstate, not biological lines, contrary to the ESA. The meadow jumping mouse was delistedin Wyoming, but not Colorado. For the Gunnison’s prairie dog, Mr. Salazarcreated a new category, outside the ESA, by recognizing montane populations asa significant portion of the species’ range but only recommending theirprotection within that subset of their full range.

In his decision striking down theService’s 2008 finding on the Gunnison’s prairie dog, U.S. District Court JudgeFrederick J. Martone wrote, “The defendant contends that the ESA gives him theflexibility to provide different levels of protection to the same species. We agree. The ESA permits the defendant to treat subspecies anddistinct population segments of a species differently by designating them as separatespecies. While there may be waysto treat prairie dogs in the prairie differently than prairie dogs inthe mountains under the statute, altering Congress’s definition of endangered and threatenedspecies is not one of them.”

Judge Martone’s decision notes the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service’s documentation of a 98 percent decline in the area occupiedby Gunnison’s prairie dogs, from 24 million acres in 1916 to 500,000 or feweracres in 2008. Guardians’ petition chronicled an onslaught of threatsexplaining this decline, including mass extermination efforts orchestrated onbehalf of the livestock industry; sylvatic plague, an exotic disease to whichprairie dogs have little or no immunity; rampant oil and gas drilling;shooting; poisoning; urban sprawl; and other perils.

“The Gunnison’s prairie dog is by all accounts imperiled. It hasalready waited six years for federal protection. Secretary Salazar seems intenton inventing new strategies not to fight extinction, but to guarantee it,”Rosmarino continued.

WildEarth Guardians is a west-wide conservationgroup dedicated to protecting and restoring wildlife, wild rivers, and wildplaces. The group leads a coalition of over 100 scientists and conservationgroups calling for Ken Salazar’s resignation as Interior Secretary.

For more information email nrosmarino@wildearthguardians.orgor call 505-699-7404.