FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Endangered Species Act Protection Will Be Considered for White-tailed Prairie Dog

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Overturns Politically Motivated Decision

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will initiate a formal review of the white-tailed prairie dog's status, and will consider protecting the prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act. This overturns the Service's 2004 decision denying protections, which the Service admits was manipulated by a political appointee.

White-tailed prairie dog. Photo by Iain Byrne.

Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service overturned a politically motivated decision denying the white-tailed prairie dog consideration as an endangered species.  The Service today announced that it has initiated a formal status review and will determine whether Endangered Species Act protection is necessary for the prairie dog by June 1, 2010. 

"The clock is ticking.  The Service and state wildlife agencies have two more years to study the white-tailed prairie dog's status," said Erin Robertson, Senior Staff Biologist for the Denver-based conservation group, Center for Native Ecosystems.  "Hopefully the days of political interference are over," said Robertson.

Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service admitted that Julie MacDonald, a political appointee in the Interior Department with no biological training, overruled agency biologists to deny protections for the white-tailed prairie dog and other species under the Endangered Species Act.  In a June 21, 2007 memo, the Fish and Wildlife Service stated that the denial of protections for the prairie dog “only occurred at Ms. MacDonald’s direction” and that the Service recommended moving forward with a status review.  Today the Service initiated the status review that the biologists previously recommended, and requested that the public send in comments by July 7, 2008.  Based on this review, the Service will publish their determination of whether Endangered Species Act protection is necessary by June 1, 2010.

The white-tailed prairie dog is an indicator of healthy wildlife populations in the sagebrush sea of the west.  Many animals depend on prairie dogs for food and shelter, including endangered black-footed ferrets, burrowing owls, mountain plovers, and ferruginous hawks.  Once ranging throughout western Colorado, eastern Utah, Wyoming, and south-central Montana, the prairie dog has declined by over 92% throughout its range.  Oil and gas drilling, disease, shooting, and poisoning have taken their toll.

"White-tailed prairie dogs are so important to other imperiled western wildlife," said Josh Pollock, Conservation Director for Center for Native Ecosystems.  "The least the Service can do is provide a fair assessment of the prairie dog's status based on the data it collects over the next two years," said Pollock.

In 2002, a coalition of conservation groups and author Terry Tempest Williams petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the white-tailed prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act.  In 2004 the Service published the manipulated finding.  The conservation groups obtained documents via the Freedom of Information Act that demonstrated that MacDonald changed the biologists' finding, which the Service confirmed in 2007.  Today's announcement is the result of a subsequent lawsuit filed in November 2007 by Center for Native Ecosystems, WildEarth Guardians, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, and Terry Tempest Williams.

The white-tailed prairie dog faces growing threats from oil and gas drilling.  Recent reports indicate that in the next 15-20 years, more than 126,000 new oil and gas wells will be drilled in the Rocky Mountains, many of them in the sagebrush basins that the white-tailed prairie dog calls home. 

Duane Short, Wild Species Program Director for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance noted, “In Wyoming, oil and gas drilling is being approved at an unprecedented pace within the prairie dog’s range without proper consideration of impacts.” Short added, “If the Service is serious about allowing science to drive its decisions it will expedite its assessment of the prairie dog’s status.”

Plague is another major threat to the species' survival.  Prairie dogs are highly susceptible to this nonnative disease accidentally introduced to North America around 1900.

For supporting materials including today’s announcement, high-resolution white-tailed prairie dog photos, documentation of MacDonald's interference, and the 2002 petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection, please visit:

http://www.nativeecosystems.org/species/white-tailed-prairie-dog-1/white-tailed-prairie-dog/

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