Feds: Prairie Dog not Endangered

On December 2, 2009, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced the black-tailed prairie dog does not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service cited a steady increase in occupied habit and a thirty to seventy percent annual increase in population. The Service also found that increasing population trends evidenced that cropland conversion, urbanization and other habitat effects are not limiting factors for the species and sufficient habitat still exists. Holsinger Law represented the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Partnership for the West in litigation and administrative actions related to the proposed listing. There could be as many as 33 million black-tailed prairie dogs throughout ten states.  For comparison, the population of Canada is estimated to be 31 million. Colorado’s Front Range has at least 631,000 acres of occupied prairie dog habitat. Forest Guardians, Center for Native Ecosystem and Rocky Mountain Animal Defense were behind the lawsuit. Forest Guardians also filed suit to list the Gunnison sage grouse, Gunnison prairie dog and mountain plover. The Center for Native Ecosystems joined in all but the mountain plover suit. Should such efforts succeed, nearly every square mile of Colorado could be blanketed with ESA listings. The ESA was signed into law in 1973, and was designed to bring endangered species back from the brink of extinction. Over the past 32 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, only ten of over 1300 species on the list have recovered.