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Recent Releases and News

For Immediate Release Contact Lindsey Sterling Krank (720) 938-0788

July 17, 2006

Prairie Dog Coalition Urges National Forest Service to: Keep Poisons Off Our Prairies

RAPID CITY, S.D. — July 19th, 2007 — Citizens from Rapid City, South Dakota, met with National Forest Service Superintendent Don Bright today to express opposition to Nebraska’s plan to poison more prairie dogs within the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

Concerned citizen, Mary Jo Farrington of Rapid City, states. “Prairie dogs are a part of our natural order on our public lands. We need to allow for healthy prairie dog populations so future generations can enjoy them too.”

Meeting participants joined tens of thousands of Americans who oppose the Nebraska Forest Service plan to poison colonies of prairie dogs within Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. If allowed to be implemented, the plan will jeopardize the recovery of North America’s most endangered mammal, the black-footed ferret.

More than 60,000 comments have already been sent to the Forest Service office opposing this plan, which reaches beyond the national forests of Nebraska and includes Conata Basin in South Dakota.

Across the country, scientists have observed a decline in the population of prairie dogs. It is now only 5 percent of what it was over a century ago. Scientists also concur that prairie dogs are a keystone species on which so many others are dependent for survival.

“Prairie dogs are like canaries in the coal mine. If their population declines, others will soon follow. The loss of prairie dogs has implications that go beyond just having a thriving prairie dog population,” states Lindsey Sterling Krank, Director of the Prairie Dog Coalition.

Fifty-seven percent of voters favored federal and state agencies establishing strict protections for prairie dogs on public lands in a 2006 poll conducted by Lake Research Partners.

Sterling Krank continues, “Economically, scientifically and in alignment with the country’s wishes, the Nebraska National Forest Plan to poison more prairie dogs should be halted now.”

Concluding, Nancy Hilding, President of Prairie Hills Audubon Society, states, "We ask the federal government to reject all alternatives that will decrease prairie dogs acres on the Nebraska National Forest."

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For the benefit of treasured wildlife, the Prairie Dog Coalition is dedicated to the protection of imperiled prairie dogs and restoration of their ecosystems. To accomplish this mission, we provide information and advocacy training, facilitate communication and planning, and promote conservation projects.