WildEarth Guardians

A Force for Nature

Select Page

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

Press Releases

Petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Reclassify The Utah Prairie Dog as an Endangered Species Under the Endangered

Date
February 3, 2005
Contact
WildEarth Guardians
In This Release
Wildlife  
#EndangeredSpeciesAct, #ProtectPrairieDogEmpires
Petitioners are requesting FWS reclassify the Utah prairie dog to Endangered status under the ESA. This prairie dog species has been listed since the ESA was passed in 1973. It was originally listed as Endangered, but was downlisted to Threatened in 1984, in response to a delisting petition from the State of Utah.

The Utah prairie dog is a full species, and is a member of the prairie dog genus, which comprises five species. All five species are considered keystone, meaning they play inordinately important roles in the ecosystems where they exist. The Utah prairie dog is very geographically restricted, limited to a few counties in southwestern Utah.

Historical acreage of this prairie dog species has been drastically reduced, from 448,000 acres to only 6,977 acres across their range, a decline of 98.4%.

Read the Petition Executive Summary 2/3/05 (PDF)

Read the Full Petition 2/3/05 (PDF)