Brodie Farquhar Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:00 am
Six conservation groups have petitioned the Bureau of Land Management to designate 25 white-tailed prairie dog colonies in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah for special environmental protections.
Seventeen of the colonies are in the "sagebrush sea" of central and western Wyoming. Each colony is at least 5,000 acres. The affected Wyoming BLM field offices are Cody, Kemmerer, Lander, Pinedale, Rawlins, Rock Springs and Worland.
Dave Roberts, wildlife program director for the Wyoming BLM, said this petition follows one filed last year by the National Wildlife Federation to protect 250 black-tailed prairie dog towns with a designation as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). That petition for black-tailed prairie dogs is currently being considered, he said.
"BLM receives these petitions from our own staff as well as from citizens," Roberts said. Depending on the complexity of the issue, BLM officials can rule on a petition in a matter of weeks, or a year, he said. Roberts said he hadn't seen the new petition.
The conservation groups also released a new report, "Recovering the White-Tailed Prairie Dog and its Habitat: Management Needs," that spells out state and federal steps required to stem the rapid decline of the prairie dog. The report is available on the Internet at (www.nativeecosystems.org).
"Designation means that the BLM can make tailored protections for a species," said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie. For example, the Shamrock Hills ACEC near Rawlins is designed to protect nesting raptors, Molvar said.
He said the prairie dog is a keystone species for high desert ecosystems and are critical to the survival of rare wildlife such as burrowing owls, black-footed ferrets and ferruginous hawks.
The conservation groups have asked the BLM to manage each ACEC to:
- Protect white-tailed prairie dog colonies from oil and gas development activities.
- Prohibit prairie dog shooting.
- Prohibit poisoning of prairie dog colonies.
- Restrict motorized vehicles to designated routes in prairie dog habitat.
- Relocate prairie dogs on private land threatened with imminent destruction.
"In the late 19th century, the passenger pigeon declined from billions to dozens in the span of only 30 years," said Nicole Rosmarino, endangered species coordinator for Forest Guardians. "If we don't act now to recover the white-tailed prairie dog, it may well become the passenger pigeon of the sagebrush sea."
The prairie dog coalition, led by the Colorado-based Center for Native Ecosystems, includes Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, American Lands Alliance, Forest Guardians, Sinapu and author Terry Tempest Williams.