Conservation easements key to prairie dog's rescue

CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) -- The government is offering private landowners money to protect southern Utah's prairie dog populations.

Five landowners already have applied for a program that buys conservation easements, leaving land undeveloped for the prairie dogs' benefit.

Developers can buy so-called habitat credits to evict or work around prairie dogs on other lands.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft recovery plan for the Utah prairie dog last week.

Officials say 80 percent of the colonies reside on private land, so a conservation program is critical to maintaining stable populations.

"We believe that recovery of the species will be achieved more rapidly if we increase conservation of the species on these lands in a way that benefits private landowners and Utah prairie dogs simultaneously," said Laura Romin, assistant supervisor for a Fish and Wildlife Service field office in Utah.

The recovery plan also seeks to protect prairie dogs on federal land. It updates a 1991 plan with an outline to establish new populations across three recovery areas: West Desert, Paunsaugunt, and Awapa Plateau.

Officials say they'll need to study and manage outbreaks of flea-carried plague that occur across their entire range and have the potential to wipe out the Utah prairie dogs. Vaccines and insecticides could be necessary to eradicate the bacteria, officials said.

"The 1991 recovery plan was based on the best available information at the time," Romin said. Since then, research has given officials a better understanding of the rodents' needs.

"We believe this species is very recoverable, and we look forward to expanding partnerships with private landowners to help us reach our goals," she said.

The first Utah landowners willing to protect prairie dogs will cash in for easements by the end of October, said Erica Wightman, program coordinator for the habitat credits exchange program, a nonprofit conservation effort.

The landowners will get the difference between their property's market value and the lesser value with a conservation easement, she said. To qualify, a landowner must have at least 20 adult prairie dogs on 40 or more acres of land.

The first applicants are from Piute and Sevier counties who are selling their conservation credits to Iron County developers.

"The Piute County property owner plans to put that money back into the land for an improved irrigation system, which will also benefit the prairie dogs," she said.

With enough credits, developers can disturb prairie dogs for a development, but nobody will physically remove them.

Rather, the program waives penalties for developers who accidentally disturb, kill or drive away the animals, she said.

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