FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Jonathan Proctor, PCA Prairie Ecosystem Program Associate, (406) 543-8424
Sara Folger, PCA Conservation Director, (406) 587-3389
Jasper Carlton, Biodiversity Legal Foundation, (303) 926-7606
February 10, 2000
GROUPS DEMAND ADDITIONAL ACTION FOR PRAIRIE DOGS
Bozeman, MT — On the heels of last week’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision that the black-tailed prairie dog is "warranted" for protection as a threatened species, but "precluded" from any action by the agency due to lack of funds, Predator Conservation Alliance (PCA) and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation (BLF) are formally requesting that state and other federal agencies take immediate actions to remove existing threats to the species.
While last week’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision acknowledged the species is threatened with extinction, it changed nothing on the ground for the conservation of the prairie dog. Noting budgetary constraints and a heavy workload, the FWS instead passed the buck to the eleven states within the black-tailed prairie dog’s historic range, highlighting the ability of these states to improve the plight of the species. Environmentalists note that the states have yet to act.
"This is too important an issue to sweep under the rug," said Jasper Carlton, Executive Director of the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, "which is exactly why we are insisting that the 11 state wildlife agencies, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manage the black-tailed prairie dog as if it were already listed as a threatened species."
"Reasonable actions can be taken right away, that will yield immediate positive results for this species", said PCA’s Conservation Director Sara Folger of the six steps PCA and BLF are challenging the agencies to implement. "Other measures will take some time, but are absolutely necessary to recover the prairie dog ecosystem".
The immediate steps to conserve the black-tailed prairie dog are to:
1) change the management designation of the black-tailed prairie dog in all eleven states from a "pest" or a "nongame" species to to a "wildlife species of special concern;"
2) end all poisoning on federal and state lands;
3) ban all recreational shooting on federal and state lands.
The agencies have already shown these steps are possible. The U.S. Forest Service placed a moratorium last year on prairie dog poisoning on all Forest Service lands. Last September the BLM banned recreational shooting on 15 prairie dog towns in north-central Montana to increase the chance for success of an adjacent USFWS ferret reintroduction program. And on February 4, a proposal was introduced in the Kansas legislature to repeal mandatory poisoning laws first enacted in 1903.
"The Kansas proposal is an important test to see if the states really want to protect the prairie dog," said Jonathan Proctor, PCA’s Grasslands Program Associate. "They’ve shown they are able; now they need to prove they are willing."
The groups are recommending the states enact three additional, longer-term steps to conserve the prairie dog:
4) begin reintroductions in areas of suitable habitat on federal and state lands where the species has been wiped out;
5) develop a long-term conservation and recovery plan with meaningful actions and concrete deadlines;
6) institute a comprehensive program for researching and mitigating the impacts of sylvatic plague.
"If the states really want to protect the black-tailed prairie dog without federal intervention, they must increase prairie dog numbers by immediately ending real, on-the-ground threats and enacting a conservation strategy with real teeth," said Folger.
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