Our Story

Who We Are

The Prairie Dog Coalition (PDC) is a collaborative of non-profit organizations, agencies, landowners, concerned citizens, and scientists dedicated to the protection of prairie dogs and advancing conservation plans for the prairie dog ecosystem. The PDC promotes and conducts conservation projects, advocates for non-lethal management practices, and provides educational and outreach resources that advance prairie dog protection and recovery.

Our Mission

The Prairie Dog Coalition empowers organizations and individuals through conservation tools to protect prairie dogs, restore their ecosystems, and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Our Vision

We envision a future in which prairie dogs are intrinsically valued and widely recognized as a critical species worth restoring to functional populations throughout their historical range. 

How Do We Get There?

In order to work toward our shared vision, we have identified three core focus areas for change:

  • Education and Outreach

  • Government Engagement

  • Community Empowerment

our Strategic Plan

Core Coalition Values

Positivity and Empowerment

We value our coalition members, supporters, and activists by aiming to provide the information and tools needed to succeed, foster confidence, and encourage initiative. We seek to restore meaning to work and hope for the future of conservation without neglecting its urgency and importance.

Equity and Inclusion

We acknowledge that our work to conserve and restore prairie habitat is closely intertwined with issues of environmental and social justice. People and nature have the right to thrive on a shared landscape, and inequities that burden one influence the whole ecosystem. We recognize that to better support people and nature, we need to cultivate a stronger movement. This requires reaching a broader audience by honoring, valuing, and welcoming all backgrounds and viewpoints. We advocate for and support thinking about how systemic inequities impact our coalition’s work, and how best to address injustice in a way aligned with our mission.

Collaboration

We believe in the power of working together and finding common ground among diverse perspectives. We encourage respectful debate, challenging questions, and  sharing experiences in the pursuit of intersectional solutions to the issues that face prairie conservation. We want to illustrate what can happen when organized stakeholders develop consensus-based, holistic responses to complex ecological problems. We regularly cross regulatory and jurisdictional boundaries to engage partners in sustained deliberation, trust-building, and shared work across the prairie dog’s range.

Transparency

We aim to embody honesty and open communication in all coalition goals and actions. We want to make this information, and the science behind it, accessible to everyone to promote trust, stimulate conversation, break down barriers, and make informed decisions that benefit our shared goal for the prairie ecosystem.

Our Long Journey Here…

The Prairie Dog Coalition (PDC) started in 2000 after two prairie dog protection conferences held by Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, where it became clear that more needed to be done to curb the decline of prairie dogs throughout their range. Several environmental organizations, animal welfare groups, scientists, and concerned citizens came together to form PDC as an equal partnership.

Under this framework, PDC spearheaded the creation of the Prairie Dog Management Plan Guidebooks, supported several relocations, initiated outreach events, and worked with wildlife agencies to better incorporate non-lethal tools into their management plans.

In 2009, PDC was absorbed Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and for 11 years this was a successful and accomplished arrangement. In 2021, the HSUS decided to continue their prairie dog protection work, but under the HSUS brand. That's when PDC decided to willingly come out from underneath the HSUS infrastructure, and is now standing on its own four paws as a true coalition. HSUS continues to be a valuable member of the coalition, along with Defenders of Wildlife, Southern Plains Land Trust, Prairie Dog Action, Habitat Harmony, Prairie Preserves, Wild Earth Guardians, Coalition of International Conservation, Prairie Dog Pals, and others.

Today, we are excited by our new Grassroots for Grasslands campaign and the Prairie Dog Coexistence Clinics happening in collaboration with HSUS, Defenders of Wildlife, and other leading experts, along with the treasure trove of resources we have planned for this website!

Prairie dogs are so worthy of friends and support, yet continue to be persecuted at an alarming rate. To supporters new and old, we are so thankful that you share our love for prairie dogs! We are excited for the progress and successes yet to come for prairie ecosystems.

If you are interested in supporting our mission, vision, and initiatives, please check out our “Get Involved” tab or consider making an online donation through our fiscal sponsor, Defenders of Wildlife. When you use the donate buttons on our site, the money you donate goes directly to Prairie Dog Coalition funding!