Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Wildlife Board approved a plan that will make it easier to remove and manage prairie dogs located on private property.
The Utah prairie dog is one of three species of white-tailed prairie dogs in the United States, according to The Utah Prairie Dog Management Plan for Non-federal Lands. As many as 95,000 prairie dogs may have populated southwestern Utah in the 1920s, but intensive control campaigns, disease and loss of habitat contributed to extensive population declines by the 1960s, the report said.
By 1972, researchers estimated only 3,000 Utah prairie dogs remained in the state and that the species would be extinct by the year 2000. The Utah prairie dog species was placed on the federal endangered species list on June 4, 1973 and the population began to recover. By 1984, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved the species from endangered to threatened, the report said.
However, the Utah prairie dogs were still federally protected on federal and non-federal properties and in 2013, Cedar City and a group of residents filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior. The complaint asserted the U.S. Department of Interior overstepped its constitutional authority by regulating what happens to the animal on privately owned property — not just land owned by the federal government.
The lawsuit detailed damage incurred by the prairie dogs at the municipal airport, the city's golf course and cemetery.
In November 2014, a ruling in federal court returned management authority for Utah prairie dogs that are not found on federal land, back to the state of Utah.
The new Utah Prairie Dog Management Plan for Non-federal Lands was approved March 5 and will make it easier to remove prairie dogs from private property and place those prairie dogs on public land. Placing the prairie dogs on public land should speed their recovery and give them a better chance of being removed from the federal Endangered Species list, according to a Division of Wildlife Resources news release.
Through the plan, we're hoping to give private landowners some relief while still allowing Utah prairie dogs to recover. In fact, we think the plan will speed the recovery of the species.
–Kevin Bunnell, DWR regional supervisor
DWR regional supervisor Kevin Bunnell said the plan removes federal restrictions that have created difficulties for people living in residential areas.
"Through the plan, we're hoping to give private landowners some relief while still allowing Utah prairie dogs to recover,” Bunnell said. “In fact, we think the plan will speed the recovery of the species.”
Some Utah prairie dogs live in residential areas that aren’t critical to the recovery of the species. The new plan will make it easier to move prairie dogs from those areas to the public land that has the habitat and the room needed for the prairie dogs to thrive. The plan would allow landowners to trap and relocate the animals without a permit. However, landowners will need to notify DWR officials before relocating the prairie dogs and should report how many animals were moved.
The UDWR must be notified prior to taking action, and the number of UPDs taken must be reported to the UDWR in accordance with current regulation.
Previously, restrictions have been placed on private property that doesn't have prairie dogs on it, but might in the future, the DWR news release said. Under the new plan, those restrictions have been lifted.
The new plan will also compensate landowners who have 50 or more prairie dogs on their property. The landowners will be compensated for crop losses and damage caused by Utah prairie dogs.
Unlike other prairie dog species across the west, there is currently no hunting season, or unregulated take of Utah prairie dogs and DWR officials said they currently don't foresee implementing any strategies that would allow for commercial hunting of the species.
