Date: 5/28/2010  Press Release
Author: WildEarth Guardians
Contact: WildEarth Guardians (505) 988-9126
Email: msalvo@wildearthguardians.org
Additional Contact:  Mark Salvo, Sagebrush Sea Campaign Director, WildEarth Guardians, 503-757-4221 Erin Robertson, Senior Staff Biologist, Center for Native Ecosystems, 303-546-0214 x5 Megan Mueller, Staff Biologist, Center for Native Ecosystems, 303-449-4571 Josh Pollock, Conservation Director, Center for Native Ecosystems, 303-546-0214 x2 John Persell, Conservation Law Director, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, 307-742-7978

Federal Government Fails to Protect Imperiled White-tailed Prairie Dogs from Oil and Gas Drilling in the Sagebrush Sea 

Denver— The U.S. government today failed to provide the protections needed to an imperiled wildlife species that plays a key role in the sagebrush ecosystem when the Fish and Wildlife Service announced their finding that the white-tailed prairie dog does not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“Today’s decision dooms the white-tailed prairie dog and its sagebrush habitat to further destruction at the hands of oil and gas drilling and other development,” said Erin Robertson, senior staff biologist at Center for Native Ecosystems. “The decline of the white-tailed prairie dog is a sad indication that wildlife across the West is in trouble, and yet the Service chose to conclude that it didn’t have enough information to protect them.”

“The Fish and Wildlife Service seems to have turned a blind eye to all the common sense evidence that white-tailed prairie dogs are in trouble,” said Robertson. “It is hiding behind a lack of information while at the same time refusing to go look for that information.”

White-tailed prairie dog habitat is under significant pressure from oil and gas development, and while the Service acknowledged that this threat has “the greatest potential to impact the white-tailed prairie dog,” the agency made no conclusion as to the effects of this development on the species. In the finding, the Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledges that no studies have been conducted to understand the effects of oil and gas development on white-tailed prairie dogs. The agency cited examples of several large colonies, including Wolf Creek in Colorado and Coyote Basin in Utah, where white-tailed prairie dogs are purportedly thriving despite “intense” drilling activity. However, little oil and gas development has occurred in either of these locations to date.

“The federal government is running a large experiment in the sagebrush sea right now by allowing drilling to continue all over the white-tailed prairie dogs’ range with almost no protection for the species,” noted Megan Mueller, staff biologist at Center for Native Ecosystems. “Oil and gas drilling is rampant across the white-tailed prairie dog’s range, and their populations have declined by as much as 92%, yet the Fish and Wildlife Service has not studied the effects of this huge industrial impact on the prairie dogs in any concerted way. How can it conclude that the species is not threatened until the agency biologists actually check?”

"The decline of the white-tailed prairie dog is symptomatic of the ongoing industrialization of sagebrush ecosystems across the West," said John Persell, conservation law director at Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "The habitat fragmentation and dust pollution that is occurring as a result of expanded oil and gas fields has negative impacts not only on white-tailed prairie dogs, but on sage-grouse, pygmy rabbits, sagebrush songbirds, and the ecosystem as a whole. Sagebrush ecosystems are among North America's last relatively intact and fully functioning ecosystems, and they deserve a strong effort at conservation stewardship that they're not getting right now."

The Fish and Wildlife Service noted in its finding that “federal agencies have few regulations for the protection of the white-tailed prairie dog,” including in the context of oil and gas drilling. Leases for onshore drilling and permits for wells are regularly issued in white-tailed prairie dog habitat under similar circumstances to the offshore lease where BP’s recent accident occurred on a lease that was issued without analysis of the potential environmental impacts.

“The Interior Department continues to offer important wildlife habitat for drilling without adequate oversight or even environmental review,” said Mark Salvo, Sagebrush Sea campaign director at WildEarth Guardians. “Just as we will be living with the effects of the BP spill for a long time, the sagebrush country where white-tailed prairie dogs live could never recover after we allow so much drilling with so little consideration of wildlife.”

White-tailed prairie dogs are the primary source of food and shelter for the endangered black-footed ferret as well as other sagebrush wildlife like burrowing owls, ferruginous hawk, and golden eagles. Black-footed ferrets, which are North America’s most endangered mammal, occur in several white-tailed prairie dog colonies where oil and gas development pressure and other threats have significantly reduced prairie dog populations, and several of those ferret populations have crashed as a result.

“In places where a few white-tailed prairie dogs remain despite lower-than-normal numbers, those colonies seem unable to support the other wildlife dependent on them,” said Josh Pollock, conservation director at Center for Native Ecosystems. “It would be a sad result if today’s decision perpetuated this state of affairs.”