This is my old stomping grounds when I worked on black-footed ferret reintroductions. I have to shake my head on this management strategy, but I am sure most will disagree. Anyway, I thought I would bring it up so there was something new to debate.
BTW, tomorrow at this time I am headed to WY to find my deer. Happy times
State, feds agree to prairie dog control plan
By Steve Miller, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY -- The federal government will begin poisoning prairie dogs on Buffalo Gap National Grassland this fall in areas where the animals are encroaching onto and damaging adjacent private ranch land.
The poisoning will be done in buffer zones a mile or more deep, according to a state and federal agreement announced Friday by Gov. Mike Rounds.
The agreement was announced one day after U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton decided to drop the black-tailed prairie dog as a candidate for the threatened species list.
Ranchers in eastern Pennington County, along with grazing groups, hailed the state-federal agreement, which will also allow shooting of prairie dogs in some areas of the basin where shooting has been banned.
Environmental groups, however, are preparing for a fight. Four groups have already filed an intent to sue over Norton's de-listing action, and one of the groups said Friday it will explore a lawsuit over the new state-federal agreement in South Dakota.
Rounds said Norton's de-listing and the new state-federal agreement "now allows us to control prairie dogs, in many ways similar to what was done before the listing."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn't actually list the prairie dog as threatened but declared in 2000 - after petitions from wildlife and other groups - that the species deserved listing. Virtually all poisoning and other controls then ceased on federal land.
Since then, prairie dog populations have proliferated, especially as the Western drought worsened.
Rounds said prairie dogs have overrun federal land. "There is no grass left. They've even eaten the cactus," he said. "Then, they move onto the neighbor's land next door."
The new agreement in South Dakota was reached among the state, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS.
Under the plan, the Forest Service will provide $120,000 to APHIS for poisoning on federal lands in Conata Basin and Fall River County beginning Oct. 1. Poisoning will be done as a response to landowner complaints on a case-by-case basis, not along the entire length of the federal-private border.
Private contractors will do the poisoning, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Secretary John Cooper said.
The effort will complement a state poisoning effort just beginning on the private land affected by the prairie dog infestation, Cooper said. "We've needed to work both sides of the fence. We're now able to accomplish that."
State agriculture secretary Larry Gabriel said the buffer zone control efforts will have a zero tolerance policy for prairie dogs. "Zero tolerance means ongoing, repeated control. It means an ongoing commitment," Gabriel said.
Other highlights of the plan:
* The Forest Service will amend its shooting ban to allow shooting of prairie dogs in a 1 mile buffer zone around the edges of forest land in Conata Basin. Nebraska National Forest supervisor Don Bright said Friday that "shooting will be allowed as soon as we can get it going."
* The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission will be asked to drop the state shooting ban in Conata Basin.
* The state will provide prison inmates to help the Forest Service expand trapping of prairie dogs that encroach onto private lands.
* The Forest Service will amend its forest plan to provide long-term flexibility for prairie dog management and reduce the impact on adjacent landowners.
* The state has finished revising its prairie dog management plan, will forward it to the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service for review, and will submit it to the South Dakota Legislature in January 2005.
Conata Basin rancher Charles Kruse called the state-federal agreement a positive step. "I'm really most pleased about the de-listing," Kruse said after Rounds' meeting Friday in Rapid City.
Kruse said prairie dogs have ruined federal lands he and other ranchers lease in Conata Basin and are damaging their private land, too. "Our lives are in shambles," he said.
Mark DeVries, chairman of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association's wildlife committee, called the short-term control measures announced Friday "the best we can hope for."
The Stockgrowers have criticized both the feds and previous state efforts, including earlier drafts of the state prairie dog management plan.
"It looks like we're finally going to start down the right path," DeVries said after Friday's meeting.
Both Cooper and Gabriel said the new agreement and the state plan were attempts to help farmers and ranchers besieged by prairie dogs without prompting lawsuits from environmental groups and without resulting in a listing of the species as threatened.
Cooper said, for example, that in areas where prairie dogs will be poisoned, black-footed ferrets will be trapped and moved elsewhere. The endangered ferrets, introduced in Conata Basin several years ago, feed on prairie dogs.
Cooper and Gabriel said it is important for the state to keep 168,000 acres of prairie dogs, a goal agreed upon with federal agencies. A survey last year found the state has about 198,000 acres occupied by prairie dogs on nontribal land.
Cooper said control would not take place in a buffer zone along the entire public-private border. Such a move could drop the population below the 168,000-acre threshold.
"What we don't need is a lawsuit and an injunction that will stop what we want to do," Cooper told a group of about 40 ranchers, government officials and reporters. "If we get sucked into a lawsuit, I'm not sure we've done anybody on the ground any good."
But Jonathan Proctor of the Predator Conservation Alliance said his group would actively explore a lawsuit over the South Dakota agreement. "This is a direct threat to an endangered species," he said Friday.
Proctor said the agreement was forced upon federal biologists and land managers at the regional and local levels by officials high in the Bush administration.
"This is the most blatant example of political interference endangering wildlife that I've ever seen," Proctor said.
Proctor said his group, along with Forest Guardians, Center for Native Ecosystems and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, on Thursday filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue over Norton's decision to drop the prairie dog from the candidate list.
Earlier this spring, a Forest Service official in Chadron, Neb., said an environmental impact statement must be completed before any poisoning could occur on the grasslands.
Friday's agreement appeared to change that stance.
However, forest supervisor Bright said APHIS, which has different environmental requirements than the Forest Service, will provide the lead in poisoning efforts. Bright also said drought has worsened the prairie dog problem on and around the grasslands.
"When the drought throws you curve balls, you need to figure out how to change your batting stance."
BTW, tomorrow at this time I am headed to WY to find my deer. Happy times
State, feds agree to prairie dog control plan
By Steve Miller, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY -- The federal government will begin poisoning prairie dogs on Buffalo Gap National Grassland this fall in areas where the animals are encroaching onto and damaging adjacent private ranch land.
The poisoning will be done in buffer zones a mile or more deep, according to a state and federal agreement announced Friday by Gov. Mike Rounds.
The agreement was announced one day after U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton decided to drop the black-tailed prairie dog as a candidate for the threatened species list.
Ranchers in eastern Pennington County, along with grazing groups, hailed the state-federal agreement, which will also allow shooting of prairie dogs in some areas of the basin where shooting has been banned.
Environmental groups, however, are preparing for a fight. Four groups have already filed an intent to sue over Norton's de-listing action, and one of the groups said Friday it will explore a lawsuit over the new state-federal agreement in South Dakota.
Rounds said Norton's de-listing and the new state-federal agreement "now allows us to control prairie dogs, in many ways similar to what was done before the listing."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn't actually list the prairie dog as threatened but declared in 2000 - after petitions from wildlife and other groups - that the species deserved listing. Virtually all poisoning and other controls then ceased on federal land.
Since then, prairie dog populations have proliferated, especially as the Western drought worsened.
Rounds said prairie dogs have overrun federal land. "There is no grass left. They've even eaten the cactus," he said. "Then, they move onto the neighbor's land next door."
The new agreement in South Dakota was reached among the state, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS.
Under the plan, the Forest Service will provide $120,000 to APHIS for poisoning on federal lands in Conata Basin and Fall River County beginning Oct. 1. Poisoning will be done as a response to landowner complaints on a case-by-case basis, not along the entire length of the federal-private border.
Private contractors will do the poisoning, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Secretary John Cooper said.
The effort will complement a state poisoning effort just beginning on the private land affected by the prairie dog infestation, Cooper said. "We've needed to work both sides of the fence. We're now able to accomplish that."
State agriculture secretary Larry Gabriel said the buffer zone control efforts will have a zero tolerance policy for prairie dogs. "Zero tolerance means ongoing, repeated control. It means an ongoing commitment," Gabriel said.
Other highlights of the plan:
* The Forest Service will amend its shooting ban to allow shooting of prairie dogs in a 1 mile buffer zone around the edges of forest land in Conata Basin. Nebraska National Forest supervisor Don Bright said Friday that "shooting will be allowed as soon as we can get it going."
* The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission will be asked to drop the state shooting ban in Conata Basin.
* The state will provide prison inmates to help the Forest Service expand trapping of prairie dogs that encroach onto private lands.
* The Forest Service will amend its forest plan to provide long-term flexibility for prairie dog management and reduce the impact on adjacent landowners.
* The state has finished revising its prairie dog management plan, will forward it to the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service for review, and will submit it to the South Dakota Legislature in January 2005.
Conata Basin rancher Charles Kruse called the state-federal agreement a positive step. "I'm really most pleased about the de-listing," Kruse said after Rounds' meeting Friday in Rapid City.
Kruse said prairie dogs have ruined federal lands he and other ranchers lease in Conata Basin and are damaging their private land, too. "Our lives are in shambles," he said.
Mark DeVries, chairman of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association's wildlife committee, called the short-term control measures announced Friday "the best we can hope for."
The Stockgrowers have criticized both the feds and previous state efforts, including earlier drafts of the state prairie dog management plan.
"It looks like we're finally going to start down the right path," DeVries said after Friday's meeting.
Both Cooper and Gabriel said the new agreement and the state plan were attempts to help farmers and ranchers besieged by prairie dogs without prompting lawsuits from environmental groups and without resulting in a listing of the species as threatened.
Cooper said, for example, that in areas where prairie dogs will be poisoned, black-footed ferrets will be trapped and moved elsewhere. The endangered ferrets, introduced in Conata Basin several years ago, feed on prairie dogs.
Cooper and Gabriel said it is important for the state to keep 168,000 acres of prairie dogs, a goal agreed upon with federal agencies. A survey last year found the state has about 198,000 acres occupied by prairie dogs on nontribal land.
Cooper said control would not take place in a buffer zone along the entire public-private border. Such a move could drop the population below the 168,000-acre threshold.
"What we don't need is a lawsuit and an injunction that will stop what we want to do," Cooper told a group of about 40 ranchers, government officials and reporters. "If we get sucked into a lawsuit, I'm not sure we've done anybody on the ground any good."
But Jonathan Proctor of the Predator Conservation Alliance said his group would actively explore a lawsuit over the South Dakota agreement. "This is a direct threat to an endangered species," he said Friday.
Proctor said the agreement was forced upon federal biologists and land managers at the regional and local levels by officials high in the Bush administration.
"This is the most blatant example of political interference endangering wildlife that I've ever seen," Proctor said.
Proctor said his group, along with Forest Guardians, Center for Native Ecosystems and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, on Thursday filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue over Norton's decision to drop the prairie dog from the candidate list.
Earlier this spring, a Forest Service official in Chadron, Neb., said an environmental impact statement must be completed before any poisoning could occur on the grasslands.
Friday's agreement appeared to change that stance.
However, forest supervisor Bright said APHIS, which has different environmental requirements than the Forest Service, will provide the lead in poisoning efforts. Bright also said drought has worsened the prairie dog problem on and around the grasslands.
"When the drought throws you curve balls, you need to figure out how to change your batting stance."
