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Emails obtained by WildEarth Guardians by FOIA request show that the Gunnison's Prairie Dog was on track to be listed under the ESA until Julie McDonald at the DOI explicitly forced the Mountain-Prairie Regional office of the F&WS to reverse the decision Emails obtained by WildEarth Guardians in a Freedom of Information Act request show that the Gunnison's Prairie Dog was on track to be listed under the Endangered Species Act until Julie McDonald at the Department of Interior explicitly forced the Mountain-Prairie Regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service to reverse the decision. Smoking gun emails show that as of January 19, 2006, the Gunnison's Prairie Dog was on track for a positive 90-day finding. Due to explicit orders from Julie MacDonald, the Mountain-Prairie Regional Office of Fish and Wildlife Service (Region 6) was forced to change their positive finding to a negative one. See Dach Email 1/19/06 at p. 2, email from Chris Nolin stating, "Per Julie please make the pd finding negative." The principal way in which the positive 90-day finding was re-written to be a negative finding was to reverse the finding that sylvatic plague constitutes a significant threat to the species. Compare positive plague finding on p. 31 in the attachment to Dach Email 1/19/06 with the negative plague finding on p. 28 in the attachment to Johnson Email 1/23/06. The new posture taken in the summary of the discussion of disease in the negative finding is that the impact of sylvatic plague on Gunnison's prairie dog is "unclear" and new information is needed. No other change was made to this section, and no new information was provided to explain the change from the positive draft finding that sylvatic plague may threaten the Gunnison's prairie dog and the negative draft finding that the impact of sylvatic plague is unclear. The final negative finding also characterizes sylvatic plague as an unclear threat. See p. 7 of Federal Register. It is clear that Julie MacDonald linked the finding reversal on the white-tailed prairie dog with that of the Gunnison's. She states, "I need a copy of the rule [Gunnison's prairie dog 90-day finding] asap please. And i would like a copy of the final white-tailed prairie dog rule with it as the issues are exactly the same, habitat and disease." See p. 2 of Johnson Email 1/23/06. All documents except the Federal Register notice were received by WildEarth Guardians on CD via FOIA from the Mountain-Prairie FWS Regional Office on August 1, 2006. More information is available describing: the broad coalition supportive of this petition effort (including realtors, homebuilders, religious groups, military officials), the problem of the Fish and Wildlife Service relying on state conservation efforts to avoid listing, the severe problems of plague and energy development, the keystone role of prairie dogs in their ecosystems, and the complexity of their communication system (the most complex ever documented in the non-human world). Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians can refer interested parties to scientists willing to speak publicly about the need to list the Gunnison's prairie dog. View Johnson Email 1/23/06 (PDF) View Federal Register Entry (PDF) View WildEarth Guardians' Comment on Gunnison's Prairie Dog Conservation Plan (PDF)
Photos are of Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs and may be reproduced, courtesy of Jess Alford. |
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