Dedicated to the Preservation of Prairie Dogs and their Habitat
If you shop at Smith’s grocery stores, you can help PDP by participating in their Community Rewards program. There is no cost to enroll, and enrollment will not affect your fuel points or coupon discounts. To sign up:
1) go to https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/topic/community-rewards-3
2) create an account
3) sign in
4) enroll using the organization code 65195
Then use your Community Rewards card each time you shop at Smith’s, and PDP will receive a small percentage based on your grocery bill.
The board and general membership meetings were conducted on February 1, 2015. The meeting was well attended and the group discussed issues like site stewardship, rescue, fundraising, creating alliances, outreach, and other pressing issues.
To read the minutes, click on Minutes.
A new article by Rebecca Hopson, Paul Meiman, and Graeme Shannon was just published that looks at the role that prairie dogs play in the composition of urban and exurban rangelands. From the article’s abstract:
Rapid human population growth and habitat modification in the western United States has led to the formation of urban and exurban rangelands. Many of these rangelands are also home to populations of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). Our study aimed to compare the vegetation composition of an urban and exurban rangeland, and explore the role that prairie dogs play in these systems. The percent absolute canopy cover of graminoids (grasses and grass-likes), forbs, shrubs, litter, and bare ground were estimated at sampling areas located on and off prairie dog colonies at an urban and an exurban site. Herbaceous forage quality and quantity were determined on plant material collected from exclosure cages located on the colony during the entire growing season, while a relative estimate of prairie dog density was calculated using maximum counts. The exurban site had more litter and plant cover and less bare ground than the urban site. Graminoids were the dominant vegetation at the exurban plots. In contrast, mostly introduced forbs were found on the urban prairie dog colony. However, the forage quality and quantity tests demonstrated no difference between the two colonies. The relative prairie dog density was greater at the urban colony, which has the potential to drive greater vegetation utilization and reduced cover. Exurban rangeland showed lower levels of impact and retained all of the plant functional groups both on- and off-colony. These results suggest that activities of prairie dogs might further exacerbate the impacts of humans in fragmented urban rangeland habitats. Greater understanding of the drivers of these impacts and the spatial scales at which they occur are likely to prove valuable in the management and conservation of rangelands in and around urban areas.
Hopson et al. (2015), Rangeland dynamics: investigating vegetation composition and structure of urban and exurban prairie dog habitat. PeerJ 3:e736; DOI 10.7717/peerj.736
WildEarth Guardians just published Report from the Burrow: Forecast of the Prairie Dog 2015, by Taylor Jones. WildEarth Guardians releases a new report on the state of the prairie dog each year on Groundhog Day in order to let the public know how this important, and embattled, species is doing, and how well the state and federal agencies who manage and protect the prairie dog are doing their jobs.
To download this year’s report, click here.
Read more here!