A Forest Service decision about prairie dogs seeks to end a squabble between environmentalists and landowners who live next to the sprawling Pawnee National Grassland in northeastern Colorado.
Neither side is particularly happy about District Ranger Steven Currey’s decision, which he made public Tuesday.
The decision says black-tailed prairie dogs must live on at least 200 acres but not more than 8,500 acres of the 193,000-acre Pawnee National Grassland, a checkerboard of public lands between Fort Collins and Sterling.
Currey’s decision, which was made Friday, raises the maximum acreage allowed for prairie dogs from 1,000 acres to 8,500 acres, in part, to allow other species associated with prairie dogs – such as burrowing owls – a chance to coexist.
“Environmental groups focus on the lower number (of acres), and ranchers focus on the upper number,” Currey said. “I’m not going to try to manage for the low or the high. I will manage somewhere in the middle.”
“I’m disappointed,” said Weld County Commissioner Dave Long. “It’s devastating to the ranching community. The Board of County Commissioners is going to appeal the decision.”
Likewise, Judy Enderle of the Prairie Dog Preservation Alliance said her organization will consider an appeal.
“It’s very disturbing,” she said. “The national grassland, by definition, is a place where the public can go to see a functioning grassland. A functioning short-grass prairie requires prairie dogs. … It opens the Pawnee to prairie-dog shooting and poisoning.”
Currey’s decision comes after the Colorado Division of Wildlife recently approved a black- tailed prairie dog hunting season on federal lands beginning Nov. 1.
Currently, prairie dogs live on about 2,400 acres of the national grassland, Currey said. However, Long said they are on more than 5,000 acres.
Neighboring landowners forced Currey into a decision because of the increasing number of prairie dogs and because a persistent drought is forcing the animals to search for food on private lands.
Ranchers say the prairie dogs are eating the grass, depriving their livestock.
“I think that I’ve tried to listen to both sides,” Currey said. “I think I’m in the middle.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
