2/07/00

Government Says Prairie Dog Merits
Listing as Threatened...  BUT....

The Clinton Administration decided Thursday Feb. 3
the black-tailed prairie dog merits protections a threatened species,
but stopped short of imposing politically controversial restrictions
on developers and ranchers while states work on ways
to preserve the rodent.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service said it is too busy dealing
with higher-priority plants and wildlife to
take steps to preserve the rodent that has long been a pest to ranchers.

A Pest to many but a Beloved animal to others, the prairie dog will
be added to a list of candidates for threatened status
under the Endangered Species Act, but there will be no restrictions placed
on landowners to protect it.  Its status will be reviewed annually, however,
and it could move up the priority list if voluntary conservation efforts are
unsuccessful, officials said.

Colonies of prairie dogs once were found on
as many as 100 million acres from Canada to Mexico, but the animal has been
decimated by disease, eradication programs and housing development. 
"The black-tailed prairie dog is a very resilient species.  It's handled
a lot over the years. All this is, is a wakeup call that we need some
purposeful management for this species," said Pete Gober,
a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who led a year-long study of the animal.

Eight western states -
Arizona, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming
- have agreed to come up with a plan by next year for
monitoring and protecting the animal.  Gober said, "Hopefully we'll be able to work
with those states to avoid the necessity of listing the species."  The
annual reviews will look at how the prairie dog is doing and whether it
should be removed from the candidate list or moved up in priority. 
COLORADO, where the prairie dog is particularly controversial,
and NORTH DAKOTA are considering their own plans.
So it is not surprising that... The Fish and Wildlife Service's regional
office in Denver, COLORADO already has proposed several species for listing as
endangered or threatened, including the lynx, mountain plover and
Colorado butterfly plant.  Endangered status means that a species is in
danger of extinction; threatened status means it could become endangered,
Colorado will try anything to keep the prairie dog off the list.

"Any rancher or farmer can tell you that this is one hardy
species on the face of the earth," said REP.
BOB SCHAFFER, R. COLO.  "No matter how hard you try
to ERADICATE them they keep coming back in greater numbers."

The National Wildlife Federation, which had petitioned for
listing of the black-tailed prairie dog, said it was pleased with the
department's decision.  The decision "sends an important signal from the
federal government that the prairie dog's plight is dire and that serious
changes must be made in the way we manage it," said Mark Van Putten,
president of the organization.  The biggest threat to the prairie dog is a
form of the bubonic plague that can wipe out entire colonies, Gober said.
The animals have no immunity to the disease.  The plague is now widespread
through much of the prairie dog's historic range with the exception of most
of South Dakota and portions of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and Oklahoma.
It is no coincidence that four of the seven largest remaining colonies of
the animals are in South Dakota, the study said. 

The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have put
a moratorium on poisoning prairie dogs on the grazing lands
that they manage.

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