Cute or Costly? Furry or Frustrating? How
would you describe Utah's Prairie Dog? Hello
again and Welcome to The County Seat, I'm
your host Chad Booth. It has been a few years
since we have dedicated a half hour to the
Cynomys parvidens, (the official name of the
prairie dog specific to central and southwestern
Utah). Prairie Dogs are a member of the
squirrel family and are only found in North
America. Of the five species of dogs, only the
Utah
and Mexican Prairie Dogs are threatened. So
why take the time to talk about these
burrowing rodents again? It has more to do
with the WAY that they are now managed here
in
Utah, especially in areas of Iron County. So we
begin today with the basics covering two
questions: Who benefits from the plan
changes, and how complicated is it? Here's Ria
with
that report.
For residents in Southern Utah, The Utah Prairie
Dog is either a cute little animal that you find
burrowing out by the hiking trails, or pesky little
varmints wreaking havoc on your private land.
For the land owners with a Prairie Dog
infestation it has been a constant struggle on
what to do about this type of ground squirrel
that seems to populate the land like rabbits.
In the nineteen seventies, as Southern Utah was
growing and expanding onto Prairie Dog
habitat, the Prairie Dog population dwindled
down to around 2000. So the Utah Prairie Dog
was put on the federally endangered species
list, due to the fact that this particular species is
only located in Southern Utah.
Once put on the list, efforts were put in place to
regrow the population. At that time, it became
illegal to kill, trap or move Prairie Dogs, even if
they lived on private land. According to recent
studies the population has grown to 21,000
animals roaming free on public lands, yet there
has been an ongoing battle in the court system
on what to do about the ones populating the
private lands.
Rules and Regulations have changed over the
years regarding the trapping and relocating of
prairie dogs. In fact, one lawsuit almost made it
to the U.S. Supreme Court. However,
regardless of court cases, a new plan now
benefits both the dogs and the private land
owners. Previously, only a certain number of
dogs could be trapped and relocated, or in
some cases not allowed to be moved at all due
to restrictions on colony size and individual dog
size, this would leave some behind to
repopulate. Remember, they are like rabbits!
The new plan allows ALL the Prairie Dogs in an
infested area on private land to be trapped and
moved to newly established, protected land
tracts where they can grow and flourish. It is a
win/win situation that allows the Prairie dogs to
roam free while allowing private land owners to
do as they see fit.
When we come back, Chad will weigh in on this
new plan with the panel, and see how it's
affecting the counties in Southern Utah. For
The County Seat, I'm Ria Rossi Booth.
Welcome back to The County Seat we are
talking today about the prairie dogs and the
updated recovery plan or a management plan
that has been in place since the spring so far we
have looked at the basis of how it works later in
the show we will see how it's working on the
ground. Right now we are going to talk about
policy and joining us for that conversation is
Laura Ronan who is the deputy field supervisor
for the US fish and wildlife service and Chris
Kelleher who is recovery program director for
the division of natural resources here in the
state of Utah thank you both for joining us. Do
you guys work a lot on this together?
We have for the past several years.
You have each other cell phones and meet for
lunch a lot. What has changed in the prairie
dog management plan from say early this spring
how is it different now than it was just before
the plan was implemented?
In a nutshell the previous what we call a habitat
conversation plan in Iron county which provided
the process for the developers to get clearances
for prairie dogs on property. That plan was
done in 1998 and over time we found problems
with it some difficulties that the county had
implementing it and then there was an interim
statement plan a couple years that tried to
address some of those concerns that the
communities had and so in this new general
conversation plan we had to combine
components that worked from the old habitat
conversation plan and the state plan to try to
provide a plan into the future that actually
worked for people and prairie dogs.
So if the US Fish and wildlife service plan
supersedes other plans how does the state plan
get in there to work?
Well the state plan was an interim plan based
on a court decision that allowed the state to
have management authority on non-federal
lands for prairie dog. That decision was
overturned but in the interim we did have an
estate plan that was put together with local
elected officials and local municipalities and it
functioned well enough that when this new
plan was put together when the decision was
overturned and the federal government
management authority back the new plan
recognized the value in what the state had been
doing and a lot of those activities were
incorporated in this new plan an another thing
that was incorporated into it is in order to keep
costs down for local land owners and
developers the fish and wildlife service allowed
us to credit funding that is going from the state
to recovery Utah prairie dogs to offset the costs
of some of those impacts.
So I have got a piece of private land and I am
getting ready to build and the prairie dogs beat
me to it and they build their first. What were
my options last year to be able to proceed on
building what were my options to get the land
clear?
So under last year being under the state plan
there was no mitigation requirement for that
property owner so the property owner would
just need to report the loss of dogs and habitat
to the state just for tracking purposes and then
they could build. When the court returned
authority back to fish and wildlife service we
have of course other regulations where we have
to be able to show mitigation and so there is
now a process in place where a land owner
works through either the county or through us
directly to implement that mitigation and then
they can clear. Mitigation is really just payment
of a fee which then those fees are used to offset
impacts by developing new prairie dog habitats
on federal lands.
How do they actually get the dogs off the
property? Do they just give them an eviction
notice or they just start digging and they run.
We wish it was that easy.
We have got some really good staff in Cedar
City working on prairie dog ion the Utah division
of wildlife resources and they go into those
areas they will get into those areas and trap
when someone applies for those permits, they
trap as many dogs as they can off of those areas
and then move them to these newly developed
translocation sites that Laura referred to on
federal lands.
I should say the BLM and the forest service are
part of this whole process in helping us to
create some of these new translocation sites
and implement plague management for the
species because that really helps to get them
established.
So I think I want to step back a bit and look at
this and I have one side question first. I live on a
piece of property I do not have property dogs
and they take up residence in my yard now
what do I do.
We have a separate, it's called a 4D rule for
prairie dogs and if dogs are creating what we
call a health and safety issue which we would
include prairie dogs in a yard they can be
translocated away from that property and the
state is doing those locations.
That is just all done by trapping?
Yes.
You want to take advantage of those dogs and
get them to areas that are protected for prairie
dog receiver and them county towards that
recovery that we are trying to achieve.
On a broader issue of how we determine that
species are endangered I know it usually starts
with a petition a lawsuit from a group or a
challenge something like that and you all have
to jump into gear and jump through a bunch of
hoops to determine if it is or it is not, how do
you calculate numbers to determine that a
species is endangered?
So there is several different things that you are
looking at its not only numbers you could
theoretically have a species that has a very
small population that has no threats to that
population and so they would not need to be an
endangered species or threatened species so
it's really about what the threats are so when
the prairie dog was listed and when we
developed a recovery plan the most current one
being in 2012 the primary threats right now to
the species are ongoing development on private
lands and plague so we are trying to work with
those two impacts to get the species now to
recovery.
Do you calculate populations differently I have
heard that when you are calculating numbers to
determine if they need protection or not you
can only count them on federal lands the
numbers on private lands to do not count. How
does that work.
So all the prairie dogs are counted regardless of
where they are because we want to establish
the trend of the population. Fore recovery
purposes because the development is one of
the primary threats we in quotes count the
ones on federal or other protected lands to a
recovery. But all prairie dogs are counted and
we are working with the state now on a
population viability analysis to see where those
really fit in. so the rumors that I hear that say
species may not actually be endangered
because they only count the critters on public
land the numbers look like they are more
endangered so they become listed even though
there are like 6 million of them living in farmer
jones hay field.
Our local division of wildlife folks are working
very closely with municipalities and the
counties in that area and everybody in this
partnership is really looking towards recovery
and delisting them and what we need to do to
get to that point and one of the big things is if
we could count those prairie dogs on private
land that then that would add to our tally and
help us get towards recovery and one way to do
that is to put into some regulatory mechanisms
that would protect dogs in areas where people
are not as interested in developing.
Even if it's private if we had those dogs
protected to the extent that the fish and
wildlife service agrees that then we can start
counting some of those dogs towards recovery.
This may be an unfair question for either or
both of you how many species prevalent
species are listed as endangered in the state of
Utah?
43 give or take. A lot of them are plant species
and half are plants.
I would say I did not expect it to be quite that
high.
Compared to other states it relatively low we
have done a good job in Utah at preventing new
listings just by active conservation efforts that
are ongoing and funded with state funding
matched with some of the federal dollars that
come in.
Do any of your conservation efforts that are
implemented in a state level actually spill over
onto federal land?
Absolutely. I have a predominance of federal
land and we work very closely with the land
management agencies BLM and the forest
service to conserve our native species and help
prevent them from coming to the point where
they need to be listed.
Until they become a threatened or endangered
species usually it's the state division of wildlife .
. .
The state has the mandate and the division of
wildlife to protect all those protected species.
So until they are listed your division is basically
in the driver's seat as far as management of the
species?
Right and then when something gets recovered
and is delisted the division of wildlife takes over
management authority again.
I would say even with a listed species we rely
very heavily on collaboration with the state to
then get those species to recovery.
Right so do they ever get delisted?
We are working on delisting several species at
this time we got a proposed rule to delist a
plant species desert milk fetch occurs down by
Thistle down where it got flooded. But we are
working on down listing June sucker from
endangered threatened and there is a number
of other species we have also got into the works
and we are eyeballing Utah prairie dog for
delisting in the near future just got to get all of
our ducks in a row and . . .
Our dogs. . .
Our dogs in order.
What was the last species that was delisted?
This would be good for people to know.
I would say the McGuire Daisy is that correct, in
Utah at least, but like Chris said there is a real
effort now working together to work on some
other species.
Excellent any points we missed.
Nothing I can think of off the top of my head.
Great well thanks for joining us and we will
continue with our conversation when we come
back with On the Ground and see what the new
program looks like now that it's taken affect.
We will be right back on The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat. So far today
we have spent our time talking about prairie
dog PLANS and PROJECTIONS. It is time to meet
the PLAYES in this drama, PERSONALLY. The
PEOPLE of Iron County and the Utah PRAIRE
Dog.
Just a couple of years ago we had most of these
lots that you see are all built on now were
vacant and prairie dogs just consumed the
whole area here, the plan we have now the
general conservation plan has been really good
in terms of being able to allow property owners
to clear and develop their property
Its going to be a lot easier for a developer to
develop this property now that we are under
this general conservation plan because under
the previous habitat conservation plan, take
was limited to the amount of animals on a
property, and as you can see we have at least
over 30 prairie dogs on these two properties
right now and that would have been a limiting
factor for somebody to get a permit they likely
wouldn't be able to because take was limited
under this new general conservation plan take
is on the amount of habitat it doesn't matter
how many prairie dogs and we will try and get
in and trap and relocate in the summer
So our trapping season just began yesterday it
goes from July to August if we do fair weather
in September we will be trapping through the
end of September. Currently we have about 28
trapping requests so we are just going to rotate
around the valley and up to Panguitch and up to
Wayne county as well and try trap and get some
more prairie dogs out on public protected
lands.
So what we do when we get to a site is we will
usually assess the area and look where prairie
dogs are active
We have had prairie dogs come over to our
property here they are starting to come in more
often sometimes you see about 10 of them over
here
We will just set up a bunch of traps and use
cardboard and peanut butter and oats as bait.
And then we will just stick the cardboard behind
this metal plate here, and when the prairie dog
walks in they step on this, that's what closes the
gate and traps them
They are not scared of you they have changed
their habitat, they run up into here, and you can
get within probably 3 to 5 feet of them but they
are not scared of you, sometimes you see about
15 up here, 10 to 15 of them, depends on the
Day
And you want to set it back a good foot and half
two feet away from the entrance of the hole
this gives them kind of time to come out and
investigate the trap and then they will smell the
peanut butter and that will lure them in there
once we see that we caught any number of
prairie dogs like we have here then we pretty
much come out here an pick them up and take
them back to the truck and put them In the
shade
We appreciate the DNR coming out to help us
out this year, to know what to do, because we
had no clue what to do, we know that they are
protected and we can't do anything, but they
are causing great harm to our business here
Under the new plan we are able to trap and
translocate more prairie dogs its beneficial to all
the counties and the range of the prairie dogs
that have issues or conflicts of prairie dogs it
helps aid in allowing development projects to
happen more flexibility for the state to trap in
different types of situations and just over all
beneficial to the prairie dogs as well.
While most of the controversy over the prairie
dog and its survival has been between humans
wanting to build homes in the same places as
prairie dogs want to build theirs, in reality, the
threat raised by human habitat development is
only one of several threats to the species as
outlined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Others
include: disease, predation, declining forage,
mining and grazing. Efforts are being taken on
all of these fronts to get the prairie dog off the
endangered list. I'll be back with some final
thoughts on The County Seat in just a minute.
Welcome back to The County Seat. As well
intentioned as the Endangered Species Act
might
have been, it has fallen far short of being the
panacea to address the issues of us humans
inhabiting the planet with all the animals and
that is the subject of my two cents worth. You
know, It may well be that the way I just
constructed that last statement is the root of
the
problem. You see, If you look back upon all the
listings of species under the ESA, man-made
impacts has been the main object of public
debate regarding recovery plans. Examples that
come to mind are the Northwestern Spotted
Owl, The Utah Prairie Dog and the Greater Sage
Grouse. We have been the scapegoat on all of
them. It is a convenient picture to paint to
raise funds and support for advocacy groups.
Yet upon close examination, all three of these
species have actually seen substantial numbers
lost to other factors namely disease and
predation. When timber harvests dropped in
the Pacific northwest the spotted owl still
struggled because the Bard Owl was still
feasting upon the eggs. Crows have a major
impact
on Sage Grouse and so on. The good news is
that with each recovery plan we learn more
about the holistic environment in which these
species exist and are starting to do more in
other areas rather than focusing all the
attention on the human / wildlife interface.
That is in
my mind a good thing, as is evidence by the fact
that several species from the American Red
Alligator to the Bald Eagle have been delisted.
Let's keep our eyes and minds open as we
move forward on saving our wilder traveling
companions on this planet. That's my two cents
worth for Today. Thank you for sharing the last
half hour with us and we invite your thoughts
on this topic on social media and we will see
you next week, on The County Seat.
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