Daily Herald | Posted: Monday, April 12, 2004 12:00 am
Utah's prairie dogs, considered a nuisance to farmers and ranchers, now have government protection. The state Division of Wildlife Resources announced that the white-tailed prairie dogs will be protected from hunters on public land, joining the Gunnison and Utah prairie dogs already on the protected list. Hunters may not go after them on public land between April 1 and June 15, the time when the animals reproduce and raise their young. Violators can be fined a minimum of $500 and receive at least 20 days in jail.
The move rankles those who see prairie dogs as varmints that destroy irrigation systems with their burrows and create holes that break the legs of horses and cattle. To them, this is another example of the government protecting a worthless creature at the expense of people and useful livestock.
But that's shortsighted.
First, the law does allow farmers and ranchers to kill prairie dogs that burrow into private property. In those circumstances, they're rightfully considered nuisances and can be dealt with accordingly -- a hail of bullets, for example.
But prairie dogs are not worthless when you look at the big picture. The animals are a key element in the prairie grassland ecosystem. The prairie dogs have been found to promote better forage quality and more diverse grasses. Scientists have noted that bison and pronghorn sheep prefer grazing near prairie dog colonies. Prairie dogs also keep down the number of trees, leaving wide-open spaces for grazing animals.
Other animals, such as hares, snakes and some species of owls, live in abandoned prairie dog burrows, while predators use the rodents as a food source.
The least we can do is leave the critters alone while they raise their young.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.