WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Feds Must Issue New Gunnison's Prairie Dog Decision

MacDonald Victim Gets Second Chance
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Additional Contact: Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, Gunnison’s Prairie Dog Biologist, 928-699-2787

Washington, D.C.-July 3. A coalition of scientists, spiritual leaders, and conservation groups settled a lawsuit in D.C. federal court yesterday over the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) refusal to conduct a full review over whether to list the Gunnison's prairie dog, found in the southwest, under the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement, the court ordered the Service to issue a new determination on Endangered Species Act protection for the Gunnison's by February 1, 2008.

Service emails revealed that the negative petition finding issued in 2006 was ordered by Julie MacDonald and override Service biologists' positive finding, which would have pushed the Gunnison's prairie dog closer to federal protection. One email from the Service's Chris Nolin, dated January 19, states, "Per Julie please make the pd [prairie dog] finding negative." Two weeks later, the negative finding was published on February 7, 2006.

MacDonald, a civil engineer without biological training, was the deputy assistant Interior Secretary in charge of the Service. A March 2007 Interior Inspector General's Report detailed MacDonald's political interference in a variety of endangered species issues. She resigned on May 1, amidst scandal and just prior to Congressional oversight hearing on political meddling in the federal endangered species program.

"The Gunnison's prairie dog is the first of MacDonald's victims to get a second chance," stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. "With increased scrutiny, we're hoping this imperiled creature will be provided with the vital safety net the Endangered Species Act provides."

Nationwide press over the past eight months has revealed MacDonald's role in reversing endangered species decisions, and House Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) conducted congressional investigations into the matter. Rahall and others have also underscored that the political sabotage of the Endangered Species Act goes beyond MacDonald to others within the George W. Bush administration.

"The Gunnison's prairie dog was on track to clear the first hurdle for endangered species protection, but at Julie MacDonald's whim, was denied the chance at protection," stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. Rosmarino continued, "Today's settlement forces the Service to take another look at federal protection for the Gunnison's and hopefully not allow illegal meddling in the decision this time."

Evidence of political interference in determinations for other species, including the White-tailed prairie dog, Gunnison sage-grouse, Mountain plover, Greater sage-grouse, California tiger salamander, roundtail chub, Mexican garter snake, and a Mariana Islands plant, demonstrate a Bush administration pattern of violating the Endangered Species Act, which requires that listing decisions be based on solely biological factors. Conservationists have asked for reconsideration of all listing decisions in which MacDonald played a role. The Gunnison's prairie dog is the first species with whom MacDonald interfered that will be given a new review since the March Inspector General's Report.

"The Gunnison's prairie dog desperately needs federal protection if it is to be spared from extinction. With the devastating impact of exotic plague, habitat destruction, and rampant shooting and poisoning, this species does not have the luxury of time," stated Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, who has pioneered research over the past two decades demonstrating that the Gunnison's prairie dogs have the most sophisticated communication system yet documented among non-human animals.

Background

WildEarth Guardians and a broad coalition of 73 co-petitioners, including private landowners, realtors, homebuilders, military officers, scientists, religious organizations, conservation and animal protection groups, submitted the petition to protect the Gunnison's prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act to the Service in February 2004. The wide variety of constituents backing federal protection for the species reflects its high degree of imperilment, broad popularity among wildlife watchers, and the prairie dog's ecological importance in natural habitats. The Service has acknowledged that Gunnison's prairie dogs have declined by 97% across their four-state range in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah due to historic and current poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague, and habitat destruction.

Unique to North America, all five species of prairie dogs have been listed (Utah and Mexican prairie dogs) or petitioned for listing (Gunnison's, White-tailed, and Black-tailed) under the Endangered Species Act. All five species are biologically imperiled and merit federal protection.

Prairie dogs are keystone species, which play an especially important role in their ecosystems by creating habitat and providing a prey base for a wide variety of predators. More than 140 wildlife species benefit from prairie dogs. For example, black-footed ferrets are among the most endangered mammals on earth, and that imperiled status is traced directly to prairie dog declines. Ferrets cannot survive in the wild outside of prairie dog towns and over 90% of their diet is prairie dogs. Protection for prairie dogs can fulfill the Endangered Species Act's stated purpose of safeguarding ecosystems.

Few species are obtaining positive petition findings at present under the George W. Bush administration, which has listed fewer species under the Endangered Species Act than any other administration since the law's passage in 1973. Not one species has been listed in the year that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has been in office. Meanwhile, nearly 300 species languish on the candidate list without federal protection, and thousands more - including the Gunnison's prairie dog - are not even in the queue for federal protection.

The scientists, religious, and conservation groups that are plaintiffs are biologists Dr. Constantine Slobodchikoff, Dr. Ana Davidson, and Dr. David Lightfoot, and Jews Of The Earth, WildEarth Guardians, Center for Native Ecosystems, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Wildlands Conservation Alliance, and Bob Luce, the former coordinator of the Interstate Prairie Dog Team.

For copies of Service emails showing evidence of political interference, and other background documents, please email nrosmarino@fguardians.org, or call 505-988-9126x1156.