ColoradoLib has been doing some great blogging on the proposal now before the Colorado Wildlife Commission to open new trapping seasons for mink, pine marten, swift fox, and weasels. Our good friends at Sinapu have been taking the lead fighting this biologically-indefensible proposal.  At the same time, however, they are also considering a proposal to restrict prairie dog target shooting, the equally offensive practice of killing live prairie dogs - for target practice - with high-powered rifles.  We've been asking the Commission to take this modest measure to protect prairie dogs and prairie dog ecosystems for years.  This is the closest we've come.

One are of special concern is the black-footed ferret recovery area in northwestern Colorado.  The black-footed ferret, as you may know, is perhaps the most endangered mammal in the wild in the United States.  It is utterly, entirely dependent on large, healthy prairie dog ecosystems for survival.  Kill the prairie dogs and the ferrets go, too.  Yet the Colorado Wildlife Commission has so far refused to restrict shooting, and Bureau of Land Management is - incredibly enough - leasing black-footed ferret habitat for oil and gas drilling.