Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Joel Sartore, National Geographic photographer, Defenders board member, and concerned Nebraskan.

Not only is Defenders board member Joel Sartore a world-renowned wildlife photographer, but he’s also a consummate activist. Read the column below that was published today in the Lincoln Journal Star opposing a  terrible piece of legislation in Nebraska that would expand counties’ authority to poison prairie dogs.

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Local View: Oppose LB473: Protect our wildlife and property rights

By Joel Sartore

For more than 20 years, I’ve had the privilege to photograph wildlife all around the world for National Geographic Magazine.

And in every place I’ve visited, there’s at least one plant or animal that is considered a “keystone” species for the outsized role it plays in maintaining nature’s balance. In parts of Africa, it’s elephants. In our oceans, it’s sharks and sea otters. For Nebraska, it’s the black-tailed prairie dog, though it’s an animal already so reduced in numbers you would be hard-pressed to find one if you drove this state from one end to the other.

So it’s hard to imagine why some of our elected leaders seem hell-bent on getting rid of as many of the remaining prairie dogs as possible, even forcing landowners to poison them against their wishes. Right now, a bill (LB473, “The Black-tailed Prairie Dog Management Act”) is working its way through the Legislature that would allow county governments to force the poisoning of prairie dogs on private land should any cross a property line. To add insult to injury, the bill would allow the county to come on your property without asking, and then send you the tab for killing native wildlife.

Forget about the prairie dogs for a minute and think about this with me. What if a deer beds on one landowner’s property but eats crops on a neighbor’s land? Should the landowner where the deer sleeps be held responsible? Of course not. Nobody owns wildlife, so why would anyone be liable for a species that moves from one parcel of land to the next?

In an era where every new government mandate is met with great outrage (remember Obamacare?), how is this any different? This bill is an effort by the government to force individuals to pay for something they do not want; trespassers and poisoning at the landowner’s expense.

So this leaves just one question: How did this thing ever get out of committee? This not only is an affront to property rights, but to personal liberties and freedoms as well. Beyond that, is it even constitutional to force private citizens to eradicate a native species at their expense and against their will?

The fact that few senators have spoken out against this actually speaks volumes about the Unicameral at this point in time. Nebraska Game and Parks remains silent as well, even though they’re the agency designated to protect our nongame wildlife.

If individual landowners want to poison prairie dogs on their own dime, that’s their business. But this bill is similar to a 1901 Kansas law that still is being enforced against the wishes of private landowners.

This new bill would similarly set Nebraska back to an outdated mind-set when healthy wildlife and healthy lands were not valued. And this clear violation of property rights stands to have major impact on not only prairie dogs, but on all the other imperiled species that rely on them, from burrowing owls to salamanders.

In a crowded world worn increasingly ragged, we should be doing everything we can to protect these vital animals and restore the ecosystems that depend upon them, not making it easier for counties to wipe them out.

It’s time for our elected leaders to stand up for both Nebraska’s wildlife and our property rights by rejecting this bill. Contact your state senator now. They will vote on this within days, and it will take only a simple majority, 25 out of our state’s 49 lawmakers, to allow this terrible idea to become law.

A vista across Badlands National Park in South Dakota, site of the black-footed ferret celebration.

Thirty years ago, the black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct, a casualty of the war this country has waged against prairie dogs for more than a century. (Black-footed ferrets are completely dependent on prairie dogs for survival: they live in prairie dog burrows and eat prairie dogs, and we’ve lost over 95 percent of prairie dogs and their colonies due to plowing of the prairie, poisoning and exotic disease.) But on September 26, 1981, a ranch dog named Shep caught a black-footed ferret in Meeteetse, Wyoming, leading to the discovery of a single remaining population. Eight of these ferrets bred successfully in captivity, and from them we now have about 1,000 ferrets in 19 reintroduction sites across the west. Successful recovery is far from guaranteed, but we are on the right track thanks to some luck and a lot of hard work.

Rocky Mountain Region Representative Jonathan Proctor attended a weekend-long “ferret festival” at Badlands National Park in South Dakota to mark the 30^th anniversary of the rediscovery of the black-footed ferret. Here are some of the highlights from his trip:

The three biologists who pioneered black-footed ferret research returned to Badlands for the 30th anniversary of ferret rediscovery.

On Friday, Sept. 23, my morning started before sunrise as I traveled from my home in Missoula, Montana to Badlands National Park in South Dakota to join dozens of people who have worked over the past several decades to recover black-footed ferrets from the brink of extinction. The park’s “ferret festival” included scientific talks, media events, and – of course – tours to see ferrets in the wild. Close to 100 people attended the various events.

The festival began with the release of four captive-bred ferrets into the wild as part of the park’s ongoing effort to restore the species. The three men who helped release the ferrets were pioneers of ferret research prior to the 1979 death of the last-known captive ferret–the presumed extinction of the species. It meant a great deal to them to release these ferrets and see that their early work in ferret conservation had not been in vain.

Festival attendees were treated to a night of spotlighting for ferrets. You can see the green flicker of light in the eyes of these nocturnal predators.

When ferret researchers get together they tend to get little sleep because it’s only at night that studying ferrets in the wild takes place. As darkness fell we all went back to the park’s prairie dog towns with spotlights to search for the bright green eye shine of black-footed ferrets. This was part of the park’s annual effort to count the number of wild ferrets and evaluate the level of success at this particular site. Although the census is not yet complete for the year, the latest estimate is 25. Our day ended around 2 am, earlier than usual for a night of spotlighting for ferrets. But we all had a lot more to do in the coming days.

On Sunday afternoon, Dean Biggins discussed the latest research on sylvatic plague, the greatest threat to ferret and prairie dog survival. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it’s going to be tough to save our most important ferret recovery areas from this non-native disease. For now, the only strategy we have is “dusting,” which means applying insecticide to each prairie dog burrow to kill the fleas that carry and transmit plague. This is time-consuming, expensive and probably not good for the environment. It is basically a stop-gap measure until a more efficient and affordable oral vaccine is developed to protect ferrets and prairie dogs from plague. Such a vaccine would still require regular human intervention to keep our most important prairie dog colonies alive, but quitting is not an option. If we give up, we lose not only prairie dogs and ferrets but also the many other species that thrive on large prairie dog colonies.

Juvenile prairie dogs cluster near the entrance of their burrow. Prairie dog colonies at Conata Basin have been wiped out by plague, impeding the recovery of the prairie dog-dependent, black-footed ferrets.

Next up was National Grassland biologist Randy Griebel, who updated us on the latest status of prairie dogs in Conata Basin, an area just south of Badlands National Park that is home to the largest and most important complex of prairie dog colonies on public lands in the entire Great Plains. This is an area Defenders has been working to save from both poisoning and plague for years. Conata Basin had been home to over 30,000 acres of prairie dog colonies and over 300 ferrets only a few years ago. Randy announced that Conata Basin’s prairie dog colonies are now below 10,000 acres in size, and ferret numbers are below 100. The loss is all due to plague, which first struck in 2008. The only colonies that survived were those that were dusted.

I have to admit that seeing first-hand the loss of a once-thriving prairie dog colony was tough. But all is not hopeless, and later that evening an inspirational slideshow by Michael Forsberg helped remind us of the natural beauty of the Great Plains that still exists and that we work so hard to restore. Ferrets have been given a second chance. Now it’s our job to make sure their miraculous rediscovery 30 years ago was not in vain.

The Value of Conserving Wildlife

by Jamie Rappaport Clark

(This post originally appeared on Huffington Post on October 4, 2011)

Why save a lizard? Who cares about some little fly? What difference does it make if we kill off a few unwanted prairie dogs?

These are fair questions. At a time when nine percent of Americans are unemployed, another seven percent are marginally employed or working only part-time, and millions more are struggling to stay afloat, protecting obscure endangered species probably isn’t the first thing on people’s minds. But that doesn’t mean we should turn our backs on the countless species, large and small, that still need our help.

Nearly 40 years ago, our government made a commitment in the form of the Endangered Species Act to preserve all native wildlife for the benefit of future generations. And since that time the Act has been 99 percent effective in preventing the extinction of the plants and animals it protects. But tragically, Congress is preparing to use our current economic crisis as an excuse to abandon America’s commitment to preventing extinction.

Before the August recess, no fewer than 13 different proposals had been introduced to limit the federal government’s ability to protect endangered species (see Assault on Wildlife: The Endangered Species Act Under Attack). Since Congress returned from recess, another four have been added to the list, and more will no doubt surface long before a comprehensive funding bill is finally passed this fall.

At the center of nearly all of these attacks on our landmark wildlife conservation law is the implicit argument that saving imperiled plants and animals is simply a luxury we can no longer afford. Some members of Congress are taking it a step further, exploiting our country’s very real financial difficulties by pinning job losses on endangered species protections. Of course, this sham calculus disguises the fact that many of these politicians rely on certain big corporate interests hostile to the Endangered Species Act to line their campaign coffers.

Despite the protestations of anti-wildlife politicians, there are very good reasons to protect a lizard, or a fly or a prairie dog. Though they may seem trivial, these animals are an integral part of the web of life that sustains us all. Lizards control insect pests and provide food for hawks. Flies feed reptiles and can help pollinate crops. Prairie dogs mow down prairie grasses, reducing risk of wildfire, and they provide food for ferrets, badgers and owls. What’s more, by fighting to save these species, we are preserving the vitality of the entire ecosystems that they inhabit.

Madagascar periwinkle

There are also practical reasons for saving as many imperiled species as we can. The ESA acknowledges the direct link between maintaining biodiversity and our own well-being. For example, one economist has estimated that America’s plants and animals provide us with “ecosystem services” (such as erosion control, flood protection, air and water filtration, sedimentation, carbon sequestration, providing nutrients, crop pollination, etc.) totaling $33 trillion per year. Plants like the Pacific yew tree, Madagascar periwinkle and mamala tree have all led to promising treatments for diseases like cancer, leukemia and AIDS. And expenditures for wildlife-related recreation accounted for more than $122 billion in 2006 — about one percent of our GDP.

What doesn’t show up on the ledger though is the value of upholding the principles of good stewardship. The great conservationist Aldo Leopold once wrote, “The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, ‘What good is it?’ If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.”

We should ask ourselves instead, what will be left when all the lizards, and flies and prairie dogs are gone? What will happen to our lakes and forests, our deserts and oceans, our rivers and prairies, when fewer and fewer living creatures call them home? If we allow piecemeal changes now to our most important environmental laws, what else might politicians find inconvenient to protect?

The attacks on America’s great conservation legacy may seem small and insignificant. But each one tugs at a thread that could unravel the entire fabric of the great safety net we have built over four decades. Killing off a few lizards or flies or prairie dogs isn’t going to rescue our flailing economy. But it could very well ruin us all.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on in the wild at night, it’s hard to beat helping your local black-footed ferret biologist spotlight for ferrets. Stick a magnetized spotlight on your hood and head out with one of the few federal or state ferret biologists in the country to help them count, capture, and vaccinate the ferrets in their care and you will see all kinds of interesting life between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.  I did just that with the biologist for the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, a magnificent 1.1-million-acre refuge that hugs the Missouri River (and Fort Peck Reservoir) as it moves through northeast Montana.

Check out my pictures:

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CMR vista

A view of the refuge from afar

Bull elk

CMR is known for its abundant elk

Site prep

Refuge biologist Randy Matchett cover a cage trap he has set to capture and survey black-footed ferrets.

More site prep

Randy gets down and dirty setting up another trap.

Caught in the headlights

Two ferrets spotted popping their heads out a burrow

Hawk

Hunting dinner in prairie dog country

Burrowing owl

These critters like to hide out in prairie dog burrows

Ferret inspection

Captured ferrets are vaccinated against plague and have their fleas removed.

The release

I got to release a ferret after its vital stats were recorded in the lab.

CMR at dawn

Open plains make ideal habitat for prairie dogs and ferrets.

Ferret camp

Sometimes called “The Yellowstone of the Plains” and best known for its elk, the refuge also reveals burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, badgers, coyotes, rabbits, mule deer, and much more after just a few hours of spotlighting. All of these species thrive in prairie dog colonies, which some people see as wastelands even though many scientific studies have documented the importance of prairie dogs to healthy prairie ecosystems.

Black-footed ferrets are one of the most endangered animals in North America – they were twice declared extinct, and the recovery continues to be thwarted by plague and intolerance from many ranchers for prairie dogs, which ferrets depend on for survival. Ferret biologists say at least 1,500 adult ferrets in at least 10 viable black-footed ferret populations, each with at least 30 breeding adults, are needed to improve the status of black-footed ferrets from endangered to threatened. This requires at least 10,000 acres of prairie dogs per site, and therein lies the rub – it’s hard to find such large blocks of prairie dog habitat given opposition from ranchers who want the grass that prairie dogs nibble for their cattle instead.

Defenders has been working for years to promote enough large prairie dog complexes to support ferret recovery, but plague has thrown a wrench in these plans. Both prairie dogs and ferrets are very susceptible to plague, a disease not native to North America. It remains to be seen if the “CMR” Refuge will someday serve as a one of the viable ferret populations that move them toward recovery, but the Refuge is giving it a good go. Only five ferrets survived a recent outbreak of plague. But, rather than give up, Refuge biologist Randy Matchett spent 12 consecutive sleepless nights searching for ferrets. He counted 24 this year – not as many as he was hoping for, but a definite improvement and a tribute to the Refuge’s good wildlife stewardship.

I joined him for three of those nights. Starting about 7:30 p.m. we set traps over prairie dog holes that Randy knew or suspected contained ferrets. We spent the rest of the night driving refuge roads looking for the green glow of ferret eyes as they popped out of prairie dog holes to see what was causing the commotion. Ferrets previously caught had been marked with temporary dye and were left alone. Traps – the humane kind – were set for new ferrets, or those that had not been caught yet this year. When caught, ferrets were taken to “The Hospital” – an old trailer – and sedated so they could be weighed, assessed, and vaccinated. Best of all for the ferrets, fleas were removed (to be sent to a lab and tested for plague). After awakening, ferrets were released back into the hole they came from.

As the rosy-fingered dawn pushed back the night (and faint northern lights), we checked the traps one last time, closed them, and headed back to “ferret camp” to sleep as best as the 90 degree heat and the chattering prairie dogs throughout camp would allow.

Read more about Defenders’ efforts to protect and restore black-footed ferrets.

One of the most endangered mammals in North America, the black-footed ferret, and the prairie dogs on which they feed, will have one less hazard to worry about this winter.  Defenders won a court victory barring the use of Rozol Prairie Dog Bait in the states of Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Rozol, which contains the blood thinner chlorophacinone, causes death by internal bleeding and hemorrhaging.  Dead and dying prairie dogs can be scavenged by ferrets and raptors, which in turn become poisoned themselves.  Defenders sued the EPA for approving the use of Rozol and ignoring federal safeguards under the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

In a recent decision, a district court in the District of Columbia sided with Defenders, ruling that EPA had indeed violated the ESA by approving Rozol without first consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the potential impacts of Rozol on ferrets and other threatened and endangered species.

The final order in the case bars use of Rozol in those four states, requires that Rozol’s manufacturer Liphatech, Inc., notify its distributors not to sell the product in those areas, and prohibits Liphatech from selling or distributing existing stocks in its possession without relabeling it to reflect the ban in those four states.  EPA has also agreed to complete consultation with FWS over Rozol use in 10 states to prevent accidental injury to other listed species in the West.

Hundreds more prairie dogs moved to safety at Thunder Basin

Eric, Jonathan and Lacy, prairie dog relocators. Photo by Lindsey Sterling Krank.

For the second year in a row, black-tailed prairie dogs at Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming are getting a reprieve from the “poison-first” mentality that is all too common across the Great Plains. Last week, Defenders’ Bozeman staffer Lacy Gray, Wildlife Volunteer Corps participant Eric Paprocki and I helped the U.S. Forest Service and our conservation partners relocate – rather than poison – 248 prairie dogs from areas at the edge of Thunder Basin where they are not wanted to a fully-protected area in its core that has been designated for wildlife recovery.

Why is this such a big deal? Let’s consider the big picture. Americans own more than three million acres in nine national grasslands across the Great Plains, managed on our behalf by the U.S. Forest Service. One of the most important “keystone” species of the Great Plains is the black-tailed prairie dog, whose colonies once covered 10-20 percent of the Great Plains and provided an immense source of food and habitat for dozens of other animals.

Sadly, prairie dogs – and some of the animals that depend on them – have declined by more than 95 percent across the Great Plains due to poisoning, shooting, plowing and non-native disease. They continue to be poisoned and shot even on our national grasslands. But at Thunder Basin National Grassland, this is changing thanks to a new plan that includes nonlethal management and active restoration. This new plan is not perfect, but it is a good compromise that included enough of a commitment to prairie dog restoration that Defenders could get behind it.

Prairie dog awaits release into its new home. Photo by Lacy Gray.

And get behind it we did: working 12- to 16-hour days, waking from our tents before dawn and enduring the relentless heat, wind and mosquitoes that are so ubiquitous in this landscape.

We used two methods to capture the prairie dogs. One method is trapping, which involves setting and baiting hundreds of traps. The other method is filling burrows with soapy water to force out the prairie dogs. Neither is all that fun for the prairie dogs, but both sure beat a slow death by poison.

At the relocation site we built cages over old burrow entrances to keep prairie dogs on site so they could acclimate to their new homes. We moved them as family units, a proven way to increase success rates. After three days, we removed the cages and let the prairie dogs decide to stay or leave. It appeared most – if not all – liked the new location, and began feeding on nearby grasses almost immediately.

Last year’s precedent-setting relocation effort saved 550 prairie dogs and restored over 100 acres of prairie dog colonies. This year’s effort promises similar results (the Forest Service is continuing to relocate animals for a few more weeks).

But this is just one part of the restoration effort. In addition to relocating prairie dogs rather than just killing them, the Forest Service is also prohibiting prairie dog shooting in a large core area, encouraging prairie dog colony expansion through burning and dusting prairie dog burrows to protect them from deadly plague.

The Forest Service gave us awards for our work. Photo by Lacy Gray.

Basically, the Forest Service is using every tool in the toolbox to work toward the new plan’s goal of restoring 18,000 acres of prairie dog colonies in the protected area. This may sound like a lot of land, but it is less than four percent of this 550,000-acre national grassland.

During the public input process for this new plan, Defenders promised to offer assistance if the Forest Service chose to include nonlethal management. We are pleased to be able to make good on that promise, alongside our friends at the Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

We thank the Forest Service employees who are making this philosophical shift possible, specifically retired Forest Supervisor Mary Peterson, Deputy District Ranger Misty Hays and District Biologist Cristi Painter. Way to go! We look forward to similar reforms at all nine national grasslands.

Here’s a slideshow of last week’s work.

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Bumper sticker

Jonathan, lovin' the bumper sticker. Photo by Eric Paprocki.

Prepping the site

Lacy and Eric prepare a new prairie dog home. The cages come off after three days, which allows the prairie dogs to acclimate to their new home rather than immediately running off. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

Field of cages

Photo by Kristy Bly.

Soapy burrows

Besides trapping, we used soapy water to force prairie dogs out of their burrows. This is faster than trapping and also makes keeping families together much easier. We placed them in animal carriers and transported them to their new home. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

Flush 'em out

Flushing out prairie dogs with soapy water. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

Soapy escapee

An escapee covered in soap suds. Once caught, we towel them off and squirt saline solution in their eyes to clear out the suds. Photo by Lacy Gray.

Cages in truck

A truck of prairie dogs. Each cage is marked to make sure families are released together into their new burrows. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

Let me out

Prairie dog awaits release into its new home. Photo by Lacy Gray.

Jonathan's release

Jonathan and Lindsey (HSUS) release a juvenile prairie dog into its new home. The cages come off after three days of acclimation to the new location. Photo by Eric Paprocki.

Lacy's turn

Lacy about to release a juvenile prairie dog into its new home. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

The release

Takin' one for the team

Not excited about being moved into his new home, a juvenile prairie dog bites Jonathan right through the glove. Photo by Lacy Gray.

Eric removes cage

Eric removing the cage after three days. Prairie dogs usually come out of the burrows within a few minutes and seem satisfied with their new location. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

Prairie sunset

Sunset on the prairie. Photo by Jonathan Proctor.

The Relocators

Eric, Jonathan and Lacy, prairie dog relocators. Photo by Lindsey Sterling Krank.

Awards

The Forest Service gave us awards for our work. Photo by Lacy Gray.