Landowner wants readers to know "Just the facts" on prairie dogs

My family and I are Logan County, Kansas, private property owners. We, along with a majority of our neighbors, are having our private property rights trampled by a small group of neighboring landowners who are now being aided and abetted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Therefore, I would like to provide facts as to why the Kansas statute requiring the eradication of prairie dogs should be enforced.

Prairie dogs are a rodent! They are NOT even remotely related to a dog. Early explorers thought the alarm sound that prairie dogs made sounded like a dog's bark, unfortunately, giving them their very misleading common name. Their common name would be much more accurate if they were called a "prairie rat." The prairie dog like any other rodent can carry and transmit diseases that are harmful and potentially fatal to humans. Bubonic plague is the most common disease that can be transmitted by prairie dogs to humans, although, in prairie dogs it is called sylvatic plague. Humans are also at risk of contracting other tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, from prairie dogs. Hantavirus, which is a severe and usually lethal disease, can be carried and transmitted by the prairie dog. Prairie dogs can also transmit rabies. Having uncontrolled prairie dog infestations is no safer than having uncontrolled infestations of rats and mice.

There currently is a plague outbreak in the Cimarron National Grassland (located south of Johnson City, Kan., near Richfield), which is less than 150 miles from the uncontrolled prairie dog infestations in Logan County, Kan., which USFWS has used for black-footed ferret release areas. Plague can be carried by migrating birds. In 2006, there was a plague outbreak in the Comanche National Grassland, which is located in southeast Colorado and is less than 187 miles from the prairie dog infestations. According to the CDC, in regions where plague is widespread in wild rodents (such as prairie dogs), people living, working or playing in the area are at the greatest risk. Logan County has never had a documented case of plague; however, neither had the Conata Basin in South Dakota until this year. In May, of this year, it was confirmed that the Conata Basin in South Dakota was experiencing a major plague outbreak in the ferret release area, an area previously free of plague but where prairie dog infestations have been left uncontrolled.

A neighboring property to the release area south of Russell Springs fighting the dispersal of prairie dogs was surveyed in 2007, and the property averaged 99 holes per acre (one acre is equal to about 90 yards of a football field). Up to 10 percent (about the end zone of a football field) of the surface grasses may be destroyed (nothing but bare dirt) due to prairie dogs burrowing and mound-building activities. Prairie dogs, generally, remove from 18 percent to 90 percent of the available forage (grasses) through their activities. The grasses present in pastures infested by prairie dogs may change almost entirely. Prairie dog activities promote grasses and other forage that are resistant to livestock grazing to such a degree that grasses that livestock will consume are replaced with forage they won't consume. Annual plants are replaced because they are usually clipped off by the prairie dogs before the plants can produce seed. Livestock find many of the surviving plant species less palatable than the grasses that were replaced and won't graze on them. If 60 percent of a pasture is infested by prairie dogs, the reduced livestock weight gain lowers the value of the livestock by about 14 percent.

It costs neighboring landowners $23 to $27 per acre to treat prairie dog infestations. In 2006, $143,285.30 in poison was purchased by landowners from the county to treat prairie dog infestations. In 2007, the amount purchased was $122,268.50 (keep in mind no treatment was possible January thru March due to the ice and snow). As of October 27, 2008, landowners had spent $136,102.00 to treat the recurring prairie dog infestations with two months remaining in the year. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's (USFWS) Mike LeValley sent a letter dated, Jan.14, 2008, stating, "We have made funds available to assist nearby landowners with prairie dog control efforts, as well as working with our cooperating landowners to ensure boundary control on their properties." The paperwork, making the funds referenced in the January letter available, was not completed until August 15, 2008, seven months after the assurances were made and five months after prairie dogs began re-infesting the areas that had been eradicated in 2007. While $120,000 to $150,000 in poison is purchased annually by surrounding landowners from the county (keep in mind these amounts don't include poison purchased from other suppliers), the funds USFWS is making available through an agreement with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) and The Nature Conservancy contains only a total of $19,055 to purchase an ATV, the poison (bait), and bait dispenser. Best estimates are that a maximum of $12,000 will be available for poison after the purchase of an ATV and bait dispenser. The funds USFWS is making available for poison is less than 9 percent of what has been spent by landowners through Oct. 27, 2008. USFWS had $100,000 per year budget to assist surrounding landowners; however, the funds are to be dispersed as follows: $51,441 for Salary/benefits, $1,200 for Lodging and Per Diem, $6,000 for Transportation, $13,904 for Program Support (fee to administer the funds) and, of course, the $19,055 (shown above) for miscellaneous costs (ATV, bait and dispenser). Additionally, photos were taken which showed that prairie dogs had made burrows within and beyond the "vegetative barrier" that was claimed would keep the prairie dogs from dispersing outside the release area's boundary.

Croplands are also experiencing the same re-infestations by prairie dogs; however, instead of "clipping" off the grasses and other forage, the prairie dogs clip off the growing crops. In one case, the prairie dog infestation is so severe that planting is not even feasible; so next spring when wheat should be harvested, it will instead be the fourth harvest missed for the landowners of the property.

The potential risks to the health and safety of all of the residents of Logan County including my family and myself are many, as are the risks to the economic stability of an area largely dependent on the agriculture industry. These risks are effectively eliminated when the Kansas Statute requiring extermination of prairie dogs is enforced. The rodent, commonly called prairie dog, is no safer for humans or likely to become extinct than mice or rats commonly found in cities.

--Sheila Ellis, Scott City, Kan.

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