CHEYENNE — A new U.S. Forest Service plan released last week allows for the expanded use of poison to manage and control prairie dog populations in parts of Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming.

The policy, the result of four years of talks among environmental groups, ranchers and wildlife officials, is part of a new, more flexible policy designed to protect the grassland’s dwindling prairie dog population -and, eventually, reintroduce the rare black-footed ferret.

There are about 4,000 acres of colonies of black-tailed prairie dog in the 572,000-acre grassland, which is intermingled with about a million acres of privately owned land.

Those private landowners have long worked to keep the rodents off their property out of fear that they will, among other things, eat grass meant for livestock, damage crops and spread disease.

Under the old national grassland policy, prairie dogs could be poisoned in the national grassland only if they posed a public safety risk or if they started burrowing in a cemetery.

The new plan allows for the use of poison in certain parts of the national grassland as a general management tool.

The plan creates designated prairie dog habitat areas within the grassland; each habitat area is assigned to one of four restriction categories.

But poisoning is only seen as a last resort after all other management methods, such as prescribed burning or moving the animals to other locations, have failed, said Mary Peterson, supervisor of Thunder Basin National Grassland.

In addition, Peterson said, there are no plans to use poison in core prairie dog habitat areas, as the new policy states that poison can only be used in those core habitats when colony populations exceed set limits.

Thunder Basin’s prairie dog population has been reduced by plague and drought in recent years: The grassland’s current prairie dog colonies are about a fifth of their size in 2000, far below those set limits, Peterson said.

The new policy strengthens some protection rules for the national grassland’s prairie dogs. The amount of land off-limits to recreational shooting of prairie dogs will increase from 72,500 acres to 96,000 acres.

The plan also focuses on maximizing prairie dog populations through nonlethal tactics such as prescribed grazing and burning, which create ideal habitats for prairie dogs.

The new policy could take effect in as few as 40 days, depending on whether appeals are filed with the Forest Service.

Peterson said the new plan tries to find ground between landowners who see prairie dogs as serious pests and environmentalists who want to stop poisoning altogether.

“I’m hopeful that this decision is a pretty good balance between both interests,” she said.

Betty Pellatz, chairwoman of the Thunder Basin Prairie Ecosystem Association, a group of landowners that was involved in creating the new policy, agreed.

“We don’t want to get rid of all the prairie dogs,” Pellatz said, adding that keeping populations in check makes prairie dog colonies healthier by curbing the spread of plague.

However, environmental groups such as the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance have spoken out against poisoning prairie dogs — especially on public lands.

“In our view it is perfectly reasonable to place the responsibility for poisoning or for controlling prairie dog dispersal onto private lands,” said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with Biodiversity, in a previous interview. “Why should we be poisoning a Forest Service sensitive species on public land, at public expense?”

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment Friday.

The long-term goal of allowing prairie dogs to flourish in Thunder Basin is to eventually allow the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret to the grassland, Peterson said.

One of the rarest animals in North America, the ferret’s diet consists almost entirely of prairie dogs.

Peterson said although Thunder Basin doesn’t yet have a large enough prairie dog population to support a full ferret reintroduction, the area could soon become a sort of “nursery” for ferrets that could then be transported to other areas.

“It has been our goal for years to have a black-footed ferret on Thunder Basin,” she said.

Contact Jeremy Pelzer at jeremy.pelzer@trib.com.

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