U.S. government under fire for poisoning of prairie dogs plan

[douglas9]

Erik Molvar, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, one of the groups filing suit in federal court last week, said Thunder Basin is one of the last remaining landscapes with a prairie dog complex of at least 10,000 acres, the area required for efforts to bring the black-footed ferret back from the brink of extinction.

"The Forest Service shouldn't be poisoning a designated sensitive species that they are supposed to be prioritizing for conservation," Molvar asserted. "And they have a legal obligation to foster the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets, because the Thunder Basin is one of the best remaining candidate sites for black-footed ferret reintroduction."

Black-footed ferrets rely exclusively on prairie dogs for food and habitat. The legal battle is over an amendment to a plan which scraps protections and allows for poisoning and sport-shooting prairie dogs, widely viewed as pests by livestock producers.

Molvar noted the livestock industry has worked to eliminate any species it views as endangering their profits, including wolves, grizzly bears, and mountain lions. He added Thunder Basin lands are owned by all Americans, and protecting native wildlife should be the baseline for agencies charged with managing those assets.


https://www.sanantoniopost.com/news/271791578/us-government-under-fire-for-poisoning-of-prairie-dogs-plan

[hlthe2b]

1. This is unacceptable. Totally. Those outside the West don't know the differerence between a

prairie dog and a gopher or groundhog. These are animals with complex social networks and territorial to their colonies and have been found to have unusually sophisticated communication systems. It isn't just that they live side by side with endangered black-footed ferrets, which they do, but they serve a much wider ecosystem. You may care more about preserving wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, but this species is equally worth protecting and poisoning their colonies is cruel as F...k. It also has killed dogs AND children in Texas (where else) and other areas where they have indiscriminately done so.

If you have the opportunity, speak out on this as well. And, yes, I have heard the BS from ranchers for decades. If you are grazing cattle or running horses on the very obvious and avoidable small area of land with a prairie dog colony, you are not just an idiot, but yes they will encounter uneven terrain and holes. I have yet to hear a successful rancher say it was not possible to avoid these small non-grazeable areas and to call out the loudmouths who claim their cattle are breaking their legs left and right as a result. They are the same morons who run their horses through a heavily burn-affected wooded area and wonder why they missed footing.

[Phoenix61]

2. I'm so over the cattle industry acting like all

federal land is theirs to do with as they choose. They should limit the land available for grazing and raffle off the leases to the highest bidder.