Gunnison Archives - Page 2 of 4

Guardians Will Challenge Denial of Protections for Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs

January 2, 2014 by PDP

Washington, DC – WildEarth Guardians will challenge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) refusal to protect the Gunnison’s prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service recently denied the species protection despite a documented 95 percent decline since the early 1900s and numerous ongoing threats.

“Failure to list the Gunnison’s prairie dog is contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Act,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “The Service is tying itself in knots to avoid listing this keystone species, cherry picking science while ignoring the species’ precipitous decline.”

States test a new prairie dog plague vaccine

December 18, 2013 by PDP

Dressed in long pants, long-sleeve shirts and closed-toed shoes, a team of researchers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife gathered in a sagebrush-grass meadow near Gunnison, Colo. this summer, each with a GPS in hand. Lining up 10 meters apart along the border of a virtual grid, they walked straight lines over a Gunnison’s prairie dog colony and dropped quarter-sized peanut butter cubes behind them. It was one of three Gunnisons colonies where the delectable cubes became just a treat for any animal that found them, but at another three, the cubes contained a vaccine against sylvatic plague, which has ravaged the West’s prairie dog populations.

Prairie dog relocation costs evoke mixed reaction

December 16, 2013 by PDP

On farms and ranches across America, prairie dogs are target practice.

In the city of Santa Fe, the furry little critters get bubble baths, leftover Big Macs and protection under an ordinance requiring their “humane relocation” if they live on property slated for commercial construction.

Even the city government, which has a statue of its patron saint in front of City Hall making eye contact with a prairie dog, is loath to hurt the burrowing rodents.

Since the ordinance passed in 2001, the city has incurred $559,000 in relocation costs, much to the chagrin of one city councilor.

Cuddling Prairie Dogs Remind Us That Sharing A Bed Has Its Downsides

December 4, 2013 by PDP

If you’ve ever shared a bed with another person, you know that as nice as it to have someone to cuddle with, it can also interfere with your sleep. Especially when you’re dealing with the dreaded bed hog.

State stuck in killing mode

October 28, 2013 by PDP

With apologies to West Side Story….

I love to live in New Mexico
Everything’s shot in New Mexico
Guns are prizes in New Mexico
Nothing is safe in New Mexico
You can describe New Mexico in so many ways: big skies with mind-boggling sunsets, politically diverse, expansive, neighborly, God fearing, home of tourist attractions from national parks to soaring balloons, rough-hewn cowboys pulling up a bar chair next to Santa Fe sophisticates.

I would also call it unimaginative.

Our gun contests are boring. Let me make it clear up front. While there is a chance, if pressed, I might come down on the side of those who find such contests ill advised, my purpose here is not to argue the point.