CHEYENNE -- A Wyoming environmental group might not have filed a controversial petition to give the black-footed ferret more protection as an endangered species had they known about the state's plans to reintroduce the rare animal, according to one of the group's members.

Last month, two landowners in southern Albany County withdrew from a deal with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to reintroduce the ferret on their land after three environmental groups petitioned to have ferrets living on public lands receive full federal protection as an endangered species.

The landowners, whose names were not released, feared that the petition would eventually result in the ferrets on private land -- their land -- also being listed as an endangered species, causing the government to restrict road building and other activities on their property.

Duane Short of the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, one of the three groups to file the petition, said Tuesday that his organization never knew about those reintroduction plans when they drew up the petition.

"It was all done kind of in secret," he said. "And had that been more transparent we might've -- I'm not saying we would've -- but we might have done things differently or timed things differently."

But Bob Oakleaf, a nongame species coordinator for Wyoming Game and Fish, was skeptical of Short's statement.

"Even if they hadn't seen the numerous articles, publications -- well, they knew we were working on (the plan)," Oakleaf said. "If somebody's going to file a petition and go public about how you should operate a program, you'd think they'd try and get a little bit of information about it."

A ruling on the three groups' petition is expected in early December, Short said.

The petition has likely also sabotaged other efforts to reintroduce the ferret, one of the rarest animals in North America, in areas around the state, Oakleaf said.

One such area is in Thunder Basin National Grassland, where the U.S. Forest Service released a new prairie dog management plan last week that includes ferret reintroduction as a main goal.

The ferrets' diet consists almost entirely on prairie dogs.

The grassland's new management strategy, worked out over the past four years by landowners, wildlife officials and environmental groups -- including Biodiversity Conservation Alliance -- allows for the expanded use of poison to control prairie dog populations.

While Biodiversity Conservation Alliance opposes poisoning prairie dogs in most circumstances, Short said the group yielded the issue to allow the potential reintroduction of ferrets into the grassland as soon as next year.

"We're going to compromise and support this prairie dog plan," Short said. "It's not perfect, but we are convinced that the Forest (Service) is going to do everything possible to get ferrets on the ground."

Ironically, the group's petition to list the ferret as an endangered species might sabotage the reintroduction of the animal to Thunder Basin, as any ferrets transported there would have to come from Wyoming Game and Fish.

"There's no way that they'll be able to have ferrets until this petition that those folks filed is cleared up," Oakleaf said.

Contact capital bureau reporter Jeremy Pelzer at 307-632-1244 or jeremy.pelzer@trib.com