Conata Basin covers 130,000 acres south of Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It's one of the continent's most intact remaining grasslands, while serving as home to the world's largest population of black-footed ferrets, the rarest mammal on Earth.
Unfortunately, this lovely area is also the center of much controversy having to do with prairie dog politics.
Recently, the Nature Conservancy purchased the 4,000-acre White Ranch, located on the west edge of the Conata Basin - a purchase that also included a pair of federal grazing permits totaling 16,000 acres.
The ranch is considered one of the best sites for ferrets on the continent. The ferrets do well there because they depend on the large prairie dog population.
Depending on your perspective, prairie dogs are:
Cute, playful little guys.
A serious threat to the ranching industry, or ...
A keystone species that do more than support the rare ferrets, but also burrowing owls, ferruginous hawks, swift foxes and golden eagles.
If the science means anything, the correct perspective is the last one. However, to some ranchers, the National Grasslands exist for one reason, with all uses secondary to livestock grazing. The basin falls within he Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and it is public land, though some argue with that designation. Some believe the prairie dogs out-compete cattle for the grass, and right or wrong, a few ranchers have no trouble getting attention from elected officials ranging from members of the Senate and Congress, to the governor and state lawmakers.
None of that fazes Lindsay Sterling Krank of Boulder, Colo., who heads the Prairie Dog Coalition, and that group commissioned a poll that showed that in spite of widespread anti-prairie dog sentiment among ranchers that carries over into the media, over 57 percent of South Dakotans believe prairie dogs deserve some protection. This would not be the first time elected officials have misread the views of their constituents.
"The prairie dog is a keystone species," she said. "Just like the keystone in an arch, if you remove it, the arch will collapse, and it's the same with prairie dogs. All of the other species including the black-footed ferret depend on the prairie dogs for a food supply, and without them, those species also collapse."
The furor over these little critters has intensified following seven years of drought. With little grass growth in dry years, they've expanded their range and that brings them into conflict with ranching interests.
In fact, some of the ranchers are hopping mad, and that includes the Nature Conservancy's White Ranch purchase. Fact is, the Whites approached the Nature Conservancy, not the other way around. And, Bob Paulson of the Nature Conservancy says they've been approached by other ranchers, including some interested in working with them on the ranch's grazing leases. He thinks all of this as an opportunity to work with ranchers and protect the prairie dogs and ferrets.
On a recent trip on I-90 from Rapid City to Pierre, I noticed a prairie dog town alongside the four lanes, one I've watched for several years. On most of the town, the grass is closely cropped, but that ends at a fence on the east side of the town where the grass is tall. I doubt the prairie dogs respect the fence line, but I know they dislike tall grass. Besides, a Forest Service researcher, Dan Uresk once told me that the surest way to attract prairie dogs is overgraze your pastures. Dan has also debunked those tales that have gone the rounds for decades about horses and livestock breaking their legs in prairie dog burrows. He tracked down everyone he heard, and has yet to validate one.
Course, some public land grazers don't like Dan because he also conducted research that confirmed that cattle gain weight at the same rate, or slightly faster, when grazing on prairie dog towns.
The state of South Dakota has an aggressive prairie dog management program aimed at keeping the rodents on public lands, but the plan wouldn't exist had it not been for the National Wildlife Federation forcing South Dakota's hand.
Instead of the hand wringing and hard feelings, wouldn't it be better to learn to live with the prairie dogs?
Tony Dean, an outdoor broadcaster, writes a column every Wednesday for the Argus Leader.Argus Leader
