WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Group Presses for Federal Protection for the Gunnison's Prairie Dog

Another Case of Chronic Fish and Wildlife Service Delay
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

DENVER - WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit today over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to provide federal protection to the Gunnison’s prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The group submitted its suit to the ninth district court in Arizona. The Gunnison’s prairie dog range includes parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

“There is no doubt that the Gunnison’s prairie dog must have federal protection immediately,” stated Dr. Lauren McCain of WildEarth Guardians. “This animal has declined by at least 98% over the last century. Few, if any species, have suffered such catastrophic declines from historic levels as the Gunnison’s prairie dog and not been afforded the protections of the ESA.”

In 2004, WildEarth Guardians (then Forest Guardians) and 73 other groups and individuals filed a petition to grant the Gunnison’s prairie dog safeguards afforded under the Endangered Species Act. After several rounds of litigation and documented political interference under George W. Bush, the Fish and Wildlife Service ruled on February 5, 2008, that part of the Gunnison’s prairie dog population warranted federal protection under the Act. The Service denied any protection for the larger “prairie” population of the species.

The Service decided that the higher elevation “montane” population does deserve a spot on the U.S. endangered species list. This population contains approximately 40% of remaining Gunnison’s prairie dogs. However, the Service delayed actual protection for this population indefinitely. The agency says that it can’t provide protection because of the need to address higher priority species. The Endangered Species Act allows the Service to grant threatened and endangered species this “warranted, but precluded” status but only when it is making progress toward protecting these higher priority species.

WildEarth Guardians’ lawsuit contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service is not making progress toward protecting priority species. This is illegal under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit also asserts that the Fish and Wildlife Service should protect the entire Gunnison’s prairie dog population. The Service arbitrarily segmented the populations in order to protect fewer animals.

“Endangered and threatened species are declining and dying out while the Fish and Wildlife Service tinkers around with excuses for not protecting our wildlife,” stated McCain from Guardians. “The Gunnison’s prairie dog could easily go the way of the extinct passenger pigeon if immediate action is not taken.”

Approximately 60 species received federal protection during the George W. Bush years, and all of these were listed under court order or as the result of citizens’ initiative. This total number of listings is the average number of species listed in just one year under both the Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations.

In the past few decades, wildlife species are going extinct at a rate that far exceeds any other time in modern human history: estimates place the extinction rate at 100 to 1,000 times the natural background rate of species extinction. The failure to safeguard species under the Endangered Species Act is only accelerating the extinction crisis.

Biologists consider prairie dogs, including the Gunnison’s species, keystone species. Prairie Dogs colonies create habitat for a wide variety of other animals. At least 170 types of wild animals benefit from prairie dogs by using their burrows for shelter and/or eating them, for example.

Professor Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University and author of the recent book Prairie Dogs: Communication and Community in an Animal Society, is an expert on Gunnison’s prairie dogs and their keystone role. Dr. Slobodchikoff explained, “Prairie dogs keep the food and energy systems of prairie communities together. When they decline, a lot of other species go down with them.”

“We urge the Obama administration to get the Endangered Species Act process back on track by granting federal protection to species at risk of disappearing, such as the Gunnison’s prairie dog,” stated McCain. “This is essential to stemming the loss of wildlife so cherished by the American people.”

View the finding here.

View map 1.

View map 2.

View photo of Gunnison's prairie dog.