Ault – Mary Kanode’s heart sinks as she watches a black-tailed prairie dog scamper through Pawnee National Grassland, duck beneath a fence and run onto the ranch that’s been in her family for nine decades.
A few years ago, Kanode couldn’t find a prairie dog hole on the 1,600 acres she ranches in northeast Colorado. Now, there are 900 holes.
The prairie dogs are coming from the 193,000-acre Pawnee National Grassland, and Kanode and other ranchers want that to change.
This week, the U.S. Forest Service is scheduled to announce its proposal for managing prairie dogs on the Pawnee grasslands – an effort to balance the wishes of ranchers and animal-rights advocates.
Kanode said she has spent more than $3,000 trying to get rid of the prairie dogs – to no avail. After her complaints, the Forest Service built an $8,000 fence along her land – to no avail.
Facing prairie dogs and drought, she is selling off cattle.
“I’m trying to make decisions on how to hang on to my ranch,” Kanode said.
District ranger Steve Currey is weighing five options, from allowing prairie dogs on just 1,000 acres to letting them live on 34,300 acres with no lethal control methods.
“It’s really to address two concerns: one from a group of people who want us to conserve prairie dogs and want to see a lot more of them,” Currey said.
“There is another group of people who want to see less of them,” he said. “We’re trying to find a middle ground.”
The Forest Service estimates that prairie dogs live on approximately 1,355 acres of the Pawnee National Grassland – a checkerboard of public lands about 35 miles east of Fort Collins.
The problem is prairie dogs don’t know where the national grasslands end and private property begins.
A prairie dog, which eats about 57 pounds of vegetation a year, goes where the grass is.
And in drought conditions, that means their territory expands.
Judy Enderle, president of Prairie Preservation Alliance, is urging 5,000 to 10,000 acres for prairie dogs.
Enderle, who lives in Broomfield, has been a longtime advocate for prairie dogs, helping trap and relocate them.
“They are key to a healthy short-grass prairie,” she said. “Our mission is to protect the short-grass prairie – one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.”
Prairie dog habitat is disappearing, she said, and public lands with prime habitat should be where the animals can live in peace.
“I understand the private landholders feel threatened by this animal,” Enderle said.
“They get the benefit of this public land, why shouldn’t they take part in managing and caring for that land?”
To Mary Kanode, there’s no room left for compromise.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
