FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Conservation Coalition Seeks Endangered Species Act Protection for White-tailed Prairie Dog

Species faces multiple immediate threats to its survival

Today, a coalition of conservation groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the white-tailed prairie dog as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The highly imperiled white-tailed prairie dog is found in the "Sagebrush Sea" of central and western Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah, and Montana's Carbon County.

The white-tailed prairie dog is an irreplaceable part of the sagebrush ecosystem. Endangered black-footed ferrets depend on prairie dogs for food, and on their burrows for shelter. Prairie dogs also provide food and crucial habitat to many other native plants and animals, including badgers, burrowing owls, and golden eagles. White-tailed prairie dogs are one of five prairie dog species in North America; two of the species are already listed under the Endangered Species Act, and in 2000, the Fish and Wildlife Service determined that a third (the black-tailed prairie dog) also warranted listing.

"If the prairie dog goes, so goes an entire ecosystem," said the naturalist and author Terry Tempest Williams. "Prairie dogs create diversity. Destroy them and you destroy a varied world."

While prairie dogs can be a common sight in the region, appearances are deceiving. Sylvatic plague, a Eurasian disease accidentally introduced to North America around 1900, is now present throughout the range of the white tailed prairie dog. Prairie dogs have no immunity to this disease, and the white-tailed prairie dog has suffered major large-scale population declines as a result. Oil and gas drilling, suburban sprawl, and conversion to agriculture have also devastated prairie dog habitat, and white-tailed prairie dogs now occupy only 8 percent or less of their historical territory. Most live in small, isolated colonies that are all too easily extinguished by plague outbreaks, poisoning, or recreational shooting.

"Most white-tailed prairie dog colonies are mere shadows of what they were even twenty years ago, and they continue to face multiple severe threats," said Erin Robertson, Staff Biologist for Center for Native Ecosystems. "This is a recipe for extinction."

"In the late 19 th century, the passenger pigeon declined from billions to dozens in the span of only thirty years," added Jacob Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Native Ecosystems. "If we don't act now to recover the white-tailed prairie dog, it may well become the passenger pigeon of our own generation."

The coalition of conservation groups believes that the white-tailed prairie dog and its habitat deserve full protection under the Endangered Species Act. The law requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to list species as threatened or endangered if they face one or more of the following threats:

• Present or threatened destruction, modification or curtailment of habitat or range;
• Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes;
• Disease or predation;
• Inadequate protections through existing regulatory mechanisms;
• Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.

The white-tailed prairie dog faces not just one, but all five of these threats:

• White-tailed prairie dog habitat is threatened by oil and gas drilling, suburban sprawl, and conversion to agricultural use;
• More than 15,000 white-tailed prairie dogs were killed by recreational shooters on federal lands in Colorado alone last year;
• Sylvatic plague threatens all white-tailed prairie dog populations (as well as all other prairie dog species);
• Neither the states, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, nor the Forest Service have established meaningful protections for the white-tailed prairie dog and its habitat;
• White-tailed prairie dog habitat has been fragmented and colony size has dwindled, making populations more vulnerable to extinction from natural events, like drought or wildfire.

"The best scientific information clearly shows that the white-tailed prairie dog should be listed under the Endangered Species Act," said Jeff Kessler, Conservation Director of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (formerly Biodiversity Associates). "It is time to give this critically important and imperiled animal the protection it deserves under the law."

The states still have a chance to avoid an Endangered Species Act listing, but only if they take substantial, immediate steps to recover the species and its habitat. "So far, the states have utterly failed this remarkable wildlife species," said Steve Bloch, Staff Attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "If they want to prevent a listing, this is the time to act."

The listing petition initiates a process where the Fish and Wildlife Service will formally consider designating the white-tailed prairie dog as a threatened or endangered species. The Service has 90 days to respond with an initial determination about the status of the species, and must make a final decision on formal protection within 12 months. Endangered Species Act protection would require the federal government to develop a long-term recovery plan for the species and its habitat.

The coalition, led by the Colorado-based Center for Native Ecosystems (Paonia, CO), also includes Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (Laramie, WY), the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (Salt Lake City, UT), American Lands Alliance (Washington, DC), Forest Guardians (Santa Fe, NM), the Ecology Center (Missoula, MT), Sinapu (Boulder, CO), and the renowned naturalist and author Terry Tempest Williams (Castle Valley, UT).

A full media packet, including background information and downloadable, high-resolution photographs, is available at http://www.nativeecosystems.org/.

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