Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included an account of lethal prairie dog mitigation allegedly used by Boulder County that has since been refuted by county officials. A quote from a Lyons resident suggested that ongoing efforts to control the spread of prairie dog colonies included poisoning via pellets, a method the county hasn’t used in more than a decade. “Depending on the situation, we use live trapping, barrier fencing and relocation whenever we can. We do use carbon monoxide when we need to depending on where they are and what the situation is,” a representative said.
Prairie dog colonies expanded to more than 5,000 acres of city open space in Boulder last year, according to a city presentation in December 2022. Overpopulation issues stem outside the city, too. In the fall of 2022, BCPOS relocated approximately 250 prairie dogs from the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve at Rock Creek Farm to a neighboring location. In 2023, the efforts continue.
Over the past month, Boulder County has trapped and relocated around half the prairie dog population from the Picture Rock Trailhead on Heil Ranch Open Space, right outside of Lyons — the first such intervention there in more than a decade. But these captured rodents aren’t going off to greener pastures. They are being directly donated to the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center near Fort Collins, where the prairie dogs are fed to the once-endangered animal of its namesake.
Mike Foster, the agricultural resources division manager at BCPOS, says they’ve seen a one-third prairie dog population increase at Picture Rock Trailhead over the past year, “and a tenfold increase in the last seven years.” While some locals are perplexed by the need for removal, the department has received complaints about prairie dog damage from people who live near the trailhead.
“With any issue, there’s a spectrum of opinions,” Foster says. “We have people throughout the county [with] opinions on how we should manage this. We try to find a reasonable balance to try and manage [a variety] of concerns.”
“There are a lot of prairie dog colonies in the county,” says Robert Brakenridge, a Lyons resident and senior research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Why are they focusing up here where there’s barely anyone?”
Foster says there are a number of reasons to control the rapid growth of prairie dog colonies, regardless of how many people reside nearby. At Picture Rock, county trail and recreation teams have found that the rodents have spread into the trailhead and parking lot, damaging land and creating dangerous burrows on walking trails.
Despite their cute appearance, the rodents can also despoil farmland and contribute to the desertification of the landscape, leading to a lack of feeding ground for other animals. In the case of Picture Rock, there are no surrounding farms, but the county says the prairie dog destruction is enough to warrant action.
“We want to give priority to wildlife doing what wildlife does,” Foster says. “We only manage when we deem it necessary.”
‘War on wildlife’
Kathleen Sands of the Lyons Climate Action Group is one local resident who is raising concerns around the county’s prairie dog removal efforts. She underscores the fact that Picture Rock is designated as a Habitat Conservation Area by the county.
“We’re not tree huggers. We understand that if things get out of control, you deal with it,” Sands says. “But these spaces are designated for prairie dogs to live undisturbed.”
Foster says control of prairie dog populations in Habitat Conservation Areas is protected under the county’s “carefully crafted” Prairie Dog Management Plan, last updated in 2022, which states: “Effects of prairie dog occupation will be monitored and evaluated annually. Non-lethal and lethal control may be implemented in habitat conservation areas if deemed necessary.”
According to the plan, a number of factors can justify control measures, like colonies migrating onto adjacent properties, which Foster says is the main issue at Picture Rock.
Brakenridge raises the possibility of creating natural barriers, like waterways or shrubs, to prevent prairie dogs from migrating away from the designated space. Foster notes that implementing these barriers would take time and effort away from current projects the county is managing on its more than 100,000 acres of open space.
“We are trying to look out for the entire ecosystem,” Foster says. “Sometimes there’s an imbalance. In those cases, we make a very difficult decision to go in and implement management.”
But Deanna Meyer, executive director at Prairie Protection Colorado, calls it a “war on wildlife.” She says Habitat Conservation Areas “were supposed to be protective, but [BCPOS] is going to continue to destroy these colonies. The people that have fought for decades to put protections up for prairie dogs are run into the ground again.”
According to BCPOS, the county is taking a holistic approach to ecosystem health through the removal of these misunderstood rodents who call our prairies home. As the debate continues to churn, Foster says to consider the nuance of the task ahead.
“There are very few things in life that are black and white,” he says. “Our prairie dog crew is dealing with these animals. They understand the importance of these animals. There’s a lot of care here. It’s not a wanton, reckless decision.”
