Public Radio International

Prairie dogs could be saviors of

Mexico's former prairies

 

Living on Earth

 

Prairie dogs are important to the grassland ecosystem because they destroy the invasive plant, mesquite. (Photo by Rene Mensen via Wikimedia Commons.)

Prairie dogs used to rule the prairies of America and Mexico. But when ranchers moved in, prairie dogs were exterminated. Now, an ecologist says the black-tailed prairie dogs are critical for turning Mexico's desert back into prairie.

 

Cattle ranching spread across North American prairies in the 1800s, stretching from Canada to Mexico. But as the ranchers moved in, the black-tailed prairie dogs were forced out.

 

Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, says about 30 billion prairie dogs used to live in the grasslands.

 

But ranchers believed prairie dogs competed with their cattle for grass and the prairie dog burrows were causing cows and horses to break their legs. Enough ranchers were convinced the prairie dogs were a problem and got U.S. government support to use a nerve toxin, which Ceballos says causes convulsion and a lung and heart failure, in the animals' burrows.

 

"By poisoning and then by the advance of agriculture. It has been one of the most dramatic, drastic exterminations of an animal by humans," he said.

 

The toxin killed billions of prairie dogs, Ceballos said, and in 50 to 60 years, prairie dogs were eradicated from 98 percent of the area they used to live in. The prairies were transformed into deserts; a shrub called mesquite took over.

 

Prairie dogs aren't attracted to the plant and because mesquite blocks their view when the stand on their hind legs, they try to get rid of it any way possible. Mesquite has deep roots that suck up water and attract small animals that eat the grasses around the mesquite.

 

Without the prairie dogs to play gardener, the mesquite turned the prairie into a scrubland, making it unusable for the ranchers.

 

"You lose the ability of this landscape to maintain wildlife and plants. But also the scrubland is not good for cattle," he said.

 

In the summer of 1987, Ceballos and his wife were driving back to Mexico through the former grasslands in Chihuahua, Mexico. But as they drove, Ceballos said they saw grasslands waving in the wind with multitudes of prairie dogs.

Salt Lake City Tribune

Iron County to feds: We can manage prairie dogs better than you.

 

Threatened species >> Resolution backs local control over recovery of troublesome rodent.

 

By Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune

Feb 06 2013

 

Fed up with federal restrictions on private land use, Iron County officials are asking the Utah Legislature to back their proposal to take over the management of prairie dogs, federally listed as a threatened species.

 

SCR3, a concurrent resolution endorsing local control of the animal’s recovery with state assistance, cleared the Senate Tuesday without a single dissenting vote and is awaiting further action in the House. Sponsor Sen. Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, said that under county management, the Utah prairie dog will recover sufficiently to de-list the species in five years, much sooner than the three decades envisioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

But it is unclear whether such a move would be legal in the absence of a statewide recovery plan, according to federal wildlife managers. Meanwhile conservationists’ predict local control would set back the prairie dog, considered by some locals a nuisance best managed with bullets.

 

"This would be a terrible idea," said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The county’s interest is primarily economic. The prairie dog is being used as the latest vehicle in which private property activists are expressing their long-held grievances with the federal government and public lands. This is not a new story in Utah."

 

But the feds’ recovery program really tramples the rights of private property owners who are being denied full use of their land in the name of prairie dog recovery, according to Iron County commissioners who pleaded with lawmakers for relief at a Senate committee meeting last week.

 

"It’s a top-heavy administration-laden program that essentially removes sound reasoning and common sense out of the equation," Commissioner Dave Miller said. "It’s clustered with complex and overly sophisticated biological approaches."

 

He said a Cedar City dairy pulled the plug on a $10 million expansion because 85 prairie dogs were found living on the property. Along with Commissioner Dale Brinkerhoff, Miller said prairie dog conservation is a key factor in depressing the local economy and pushing down property tax valuations.

"Then the next day we saw badgers. Badgers are very rare in Mexico. Golden eagles are also very rare in Mexico, and we saw more than 20 there in one single day," he said. "It hit me immediately, the idea that prairie dogs should have some role."

 

In the last 20 years, Ceballos has shown the prairie dog's importance. The small mammals, food for predators like coyotes and hawks, depend on grasslands for protection. Within a year of reintroducing prairie dogs to scrubland, they'd removed most of the mesquite and restored an environment that's conducive to wildlife.

 

"A good scientist has to do good research, but then has to translate it into action. There is no way that we can continue just being like historians — recording all the things that we are losing, instead of becoming actors," he said. "Now, my main objective in life is to save as many species of plants and animals as I can."

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

Hosted by Steve Curwood, "Living on Earth" is an award-winning environmental news program that delves into the leading issues affecting the world we inhabit. More "Living on Earth."

Utah prairie dogs, a species confined to southwest Utah, have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1973. Most of their habitat lies on private land, and nearly two-thirds is concentrated in Iron County, where the burrowing animals perforate golf courses and airport runways and even turn up in caskets in the Paragonah cemetery.

 

"Contrary to public belief, it’s not the prairie dog we hate and detest, it’s the process, the bureaucratic mess we find ourselves entangled in," Brinkerhoff said. "We fully believe the dog will be more protected under county management than under Fish and Wildlife because it will eliminate the urge and temptation to go out and kill the dogs."

 

Under federal management, recovery is expected to cost up to $130 million, according to Vickers.

 

"We are asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to transfer conservation funds to the county to allow them to put the plan in place so in a five-year period we move those dogs off the threatened list so we can get back to business as usual," Vickers said.

 

But wildlife officials doubt federal money can be transferred this way, while conservationists remain deeply skeptical of locals’ ability to save the prairie dog.

 

"Fish and Wildlife has a plan. What does have Iron County have? It has to be a holistic plan for the entire range. You can’t do things piecemeal and expect to have a sustainable recovery," said Taylor Jones of WildEarth Guardians. "They need to look carefully at what they are intending to do."

 

bmaffly@sltrib.com