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Boulder could loosen rules for killing some prairie dogs

Prairie dog advocates challenge city's relocation policies

By Heath Urie Camera

Staff Writer

Posted: 02/20/2010 02:56:45 PM MST

 

 

A prairie dog sits on top of a burrow in Foothills Community

Park in Boulder in this file photo. Boulder officials are considering changing

some parts of the prairie dog management codes, including making it easier for

landowners to kill tough-to-trap animals. ( PAUL AIKEN )

If you go

What: Boulder City Council study session on

suggested changes to the prairie dog management plan, creating the black bear

and mountain lion components of the Urban Wildlife Management Plan and comments

on the proposed Grassland Ecosystem Management Plan.

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Boulder Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway

Prairie dog management

Since

the city of Boulder began issuing permits to control prairie dogs in September

2005, eight permits have been issued to private landowners to use lethal

control methods on prairie dogs. Those permits resulted in the deaths of 681

black-tailed prairie dogs. Many more prairie dogs have been moved or killed on

public lands. Here's a look at the city's efforts:

354 -- Number of prairie dogs trapped and relocated from Valmont City

Park, East Boulder Community Park and the Boulder Reservoir.

287 -- Number of prairie dogs killed at Valmont Butte waste-water

treatment plant.

173 -- Number of prairie dogs killed at Tom Watson Park and the

improvement project at Arapahoe Avenue and Foothills Parkway.

30 -- Number of prairie dogs killed at Valmont Butte.

$297,253 -- Total cost of mitigating prairie dogs

on public land over four years.

Source:

City of Boulder

Prairie dog population

Prairie

dogs currently occupy about 1,400 acres of habitat in Boulder's 24,000-acre

grasslands. That's down from the 3,500 acres that they inhabited in 2005.

Wildlife biologists say the dwindling numbers are the direct result of plague,

not human intervention. The population will be managed by the city's grassland

management plan, which is still under review. Under that proposal:

47 percent of prairie dogs would be located in transition areas,

which are equivalent to future removal areas;

20 percent would be in multiple-objective areas, which include

prairie dogs as a priority;

17 percent would be located in prairie dog conservation areas where

prairie dogs are the management priority; and

16 percent of the prairie dog population would be slated for

removal, which includes lethal control.

Sources:

The Prairie Dog Coalition, a program of The Humane Society of the United

States, and the city of Boulder.

How to help

For

more information about prairie dogs, or to make a contribution to the nonprofit

Prairie Dog Coalition in Boulder, visit prairiedogcoalition.org

..

Since

2000, the city of Boulder has made it a goal to humanely trap and relocate

prairie dogs whenever the conflict between nature and man reaches an impasse.

But,

there are almost always stragglers -- those one or two pesky prairie dogs that

foil the cages, dodge vacuum trucks and generally evade man's best efforts to

trap them.

Those

resilient animals might lead to the repopulating of nuisance colonies, so city

staffers say the time has come to make it easier for private landowners to kill

those that are left behind.

Proposed

changes to Boulder's Wildlife Protection Ordinance -- being discussed Tuesday

during a City Council study session that will include a range of wildlife

issues -- could make it easier for property owners to legally kill a handful of

prairie dogs that can't be trapped in a reasonable amount of time.

"Unless

the remaining prairie dogs are killed through use of poisons or CO2, a site may

not be completely cleared through trapping," according to a city memo on

the issue. "Under these circumstances, use of lethal control measures can

be more humane than, for example, allowing animals to die prolonged deaths when

trapped in collapsed or tilled burrows."

Private

landowners in Boulder need a permit from the Colorado Division of Wildlife to

move prairie dogs to another property, but don't need special permission from

the city. However, people are required to apply for a city permit when they

want to use any lethal controls.

But

that permitting process is complicated and takes time. A proposed policy change

would either allow the city manager to issue expedited permits to use lethal controls,

or allow landowners to kill stragglers without any permit.

"It

is most humane to avoid recolonization of sites after relocation so that

prairie dog communities do not reestablish themselves and, thereafter, require

lethal control of greater numbers of animals," the city's memo concludes.

Valerie

Matheson, the urban wildlife conservation coordinator for the city, said there

was a recent incident in which one or two prairie dogs were left at the East

Boulder Recreation Center property after a colony was relocated.

"After

trying to trap for about two months, we couldn't get them," she said.

"We don't want bulldozers coming and crushing a burrow of an animal that

we can't trap."

Still,

she said it is tough to see an animal that's resilient enough to stay in its

home killed.

"It's

sort of heartbreaking," she said.

'A very difficult position'

Other

changes to the prairie dog protection ordinance being recommended are mostly

technical, but one modification would close a loophole that city officials say

some residents have taken advantage of.

Now,

the city manager is required to put a 12-month hold on any applications to use

lethal controls on prairie dogs if potential sites for relocation can be

identified. But city staffers have concluded that some residents in the past

have simply thrown out ideas for alternative sites that really aren't an

option, with the intent of delaying the deaths of animals.

"This

puts the city manager is a very difficult position," a staff report reads.

 

A

suggested change would give more power to the city manager to decide if

proposed alternative sites are "reasonable."

Other

changes would make it legal to damage some prairie dog burrows during work on

ditch maintenance, prairie dog trapping and public utility projects.

Matheson

said the city is at the beginning of recommending the changes to the City

Council, and hasn't yet reached out to the public for feedback. That will

happen within the next few months, she said. But, she said that it's "hard

to know for sure how it will be received."

'This is not acceptable'

Lindsey

Sterling Krank, director of the Boulder-based Prairie Dog Coalition, a program

of the Humane Society of the United States, said she never wants the city to

make it easier to kill prairie dogs.

But

Krank said her organization is more concerned about the city's Grassland

Ecosystem Management Plan, which outlines proposed criteria that prairie dog

colonies would have to meet before they become candidates for relocation to

lands managed by the city's Open Space and Mountain Parks Department.

"Currently,

the grasslands management plan has relocation criteria that would result in

essentially no prairie dog relocations occurring for any prairie dogs in the

city," she said.

Krank

points to one rule in particular, which would require one year to pass after an

outbreak of plague anywhere in the city before animals could be moved instead

of killed.

According

to a city memo, the new rule could "lead to reduced availability of

receiving sites for relocated prairie dogs during and in the year immediately

following a plague outbreak. This reduced availability of receiving sites may

cause removal to be delayed or rely upon lethal control."

Some

Boulder prairie dogs have been afflicted with plague since at least 2005, and

it's not known when the current outbreak will subside.

Krank

said the one-year rule is far more conservative than most wildlife experts

suggest.

"This

is not acceptable, since many colonies of local prairie dogs have already been

slated for removal and we believe they should be relocated," Krank said.

Heather

Swanson, a wildlife ecologist for Boulder's Open Space and Mountain Parks,

disagreed with Krank's assessment.

She

said that the criteria for relocating prairie dogs to areas specifically set

aside for the animals are "very reasonable standards," and the

overall grassland plan must balance many different interests to conserve the

habitat.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Heath Urie at 303-473-1328 or urieh.

 

 

Read more: Boulder

could loosen rules for killing some prairie dogs - Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_14440580#ixzz0gB5zIJt0

 

 

Lindsey Sterling Krank

Environmental Scientist &

The Prairie Dog Coalition, a

program of

The Humane Society of the

United States

2525 Arapahoe #E4-527

Boulder, CO 80302

(O) 720-938-0788 or ©

720-938-7855

lindsey

www.prairiedogcoalition.org