Prairie dog plan attracts criticism

Ranchers upset

The state and regional effort to manage the Gunnison and white-tailed prairie dog populations took fire on Tuesday, November 18, from local ranchers who say the Division of Wildlife’s management plan is too vague to be effective and too important to be ignored.

Two items—the Division of Wildlife’s draft conservation plan for the species and the Endangered Species Act listing process—were the focus of a work session discussion between the Board of County Commissioners and ranchers who criticized the limited opportunity the public had to comment on the management plan.
 “One major problem with this plan is the lack of public process,” said Gunnison sage grouse conservation coordinator Jim Cochran. “There was one public meeting on this plan in May of this year. It was a three-day meeting with invitations, open to the public, but with private invitations. In my opinion, that is not a public process.”
Now that the plan is in draft form, it is around 300 pages, which Cochran says is too much for most of the public to read and digest, leaving only a limited number of people able to comment.
Another opportunity for the public to comment on the plan was lost when the decision was made to have the plan go directly to the director of the Division of Wildlife (DOW) for a signature, bypassing the Colorado Wildlife Commission (CWC), which is charged with setting the DOW regulation of endangered species.
With such limited public input, Cochran is concerned that there is no way for the information in the plan to be scrutinized, “to make sure that what is in there is realistic and scientifically defensible.”
Pointing out that the plan was written for both species of prairie dog—Gunnison and white-tailed— Cochran said, “The danger in a plan like this isn’t how the Division of Wildlife uses it, but how it’s used by other agencies.”
According to the plan, if either prairie dog species were to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could use the plan as a template to develop a management plan of their own.
 “One of the issues with this is that, in terms of being adopted and utilized, this is a very extensive plan and, being realistic I think what you put in the plan is very important,” said Cochran.
One part of the plan is a map of the range of both species of prairie dog. As Ken Spann, a rancher and member of the Gunnison County Stock Growers’ Association, pointed out the broad, featureless map of the four corners region isn’t very specific.
It is also the map that would be used to define the area where an endangered species listing would occur.
 “As you can see, the map is an 8.5 by 11-inch piece of paper covering significant portions of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. And there is a curvy line with shading inside,” said Spann.
 “We assumed when we met with Division of Wildlife that there was a GIS map underlying this piece of paper from which we could make a jurisdictional determination about whether a certain piece of land was in the critical habitat or not. You’re looking at that map,” Spann said, holding the piece of paper.
With so many questions about the process, everyone in attendance agreed that there should be an effort to have to plan reviewed by the CWC, before reaching the director of the DOW for a signature.
 “Is there an opportunity for us to get this in front of the [CWC] and if there is an opportunity, should we push for that in a more formal way?” asked county attorney David Baumgarten.
One of the ways Baumgarten thought the county might get the issue heard by the commission was to start a multi-directional lobbying effort, with concerned ranchers contacting local representatives, while the commissioners approach Tim Glenn, whose task it is to represent county commissioners on the CWC.
 “It is my recommendation to try to engage the commission in formal action and we might approach it from three different ways. From the top down, take a legislative approach, from the bottom up through local representatives and then an indirect approach,” he said.