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The Fish and Wildlife last week announced that certain populations of Gunnison's prairie dog would become protected under the Endangered Species Act. Though environmental groups applauded the announcement, they criticized the limited geographic scope of the decision.
The animal is a "keystone" species of the sagebrush ecosystem because it helps create unique habitat and provides rich prey base to associated wildlife. Specifically, FWS notes that the animals create habitat, provide food and help keep the soil and plant communities healthy; provide an important food source for coyote, weasels, foxes, hawks, eagles and the endangered black footed ferret; and perform important ecological services since their burrowing helps aerate the soil, add organic matter and increase water penetration.
The Gunnison's prairie dog habitat spreads across the four corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, but the recent announcement to protect the animal only applies to populations in south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico.
"While today's finding was important in getting us part of the way there, we will work on getting actual federal protection across the entire range of the Gunnison's prairie dog. This species has dwindled by 98 percent in less than a century," stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians, a group recently formed by the union of Sinapu, based in Boulder, Colo., and Forest Guardians, based in Santa Fe, N.M., which had protested FWS's decision two years ago not to list the species.
Rosmarino added, "all Gunnison's prairie dogs are in trouble and need the safety net provided by the Endangered Species Act."
Last week's decision also offers another regulatory twist: Though the agency said ESA protections were "warranted," it also said "listing at this time is precluded by pending actions for other species with higher listing priorities." Under this scenario, the Gunnison's prairie dog is added to the candidate species list, a category that receives no statutory protection under ESA, and a proposed rule to list the species is delayed pursuant to a listing priority system, "with the species at greatest risk being proposed first," FWS explained.
Threats to their survival
FWS analyzed how land conversion, urban development, oil and gas development, recreational shooting, drought and climate change affect survival of the species, and said "more information" on the effects of habitat fragmentation and on the potential impacts posed by increased oil and gas development is needed.
The service determined that the biggest current threat to the species is sylvatic plague. The animals are believed to be highly susceptible to the flea-borne plague because of high population densities, abundant flea vectors and low resistance to the disease, particularly among the population proposed for ESA protection.
The population nominated for listing last week concerns the "montane" population, inhabiting higher elevations, rather that the "prairie" population. FWS noted that because the montane range is characterized by fewer, smaller and more isolated colonies, those prairie dogs were "highly susceptible to plague-related declines."
The Gunnison's prairie dog, one of five species of prairie dog, is approximately 12 to 14 inches long, between 12 to 15 inches tall, and weighs less than 3 pounds.
FWS in February 2006 declared that the Gunnison's prairie dog did not need ESA protections. However, WildEarth Guardians challenged that decision in part because of the potential influence of Julie MacDonald, the controversial former deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Department of Interior. MacDonald resigned last year after Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney issued a scathing report that found she violated ethics rules and edited scientific decisions on endangered species issues, among other things.
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