Boulder County Parks and Open Space hosted its annual prairie dog management meeting Thursday in Longmont as the local community gathered to convey their concerns and questions about prairie dog removal and conservation efforts on nearby agricultural lands.

Agricultural Resource Specialist Cassandra Schnarr addressed the criticism the office had been receiving recently about utilizing prairie dog removal strategies in Habitat Conservation Areas:

“So we had lots of calls and comments saying that we were not following the policy on HCA areas,” said Schnarr. “Our policy is really long and hard to wade through so maybe you missed it but it does say that non-lethal and lethal control can be used on HCAs when it’s deemed necessary, so we do follow our policy.”

The presentation outlined the differences between Habitat Conservation Areas and Multiple Objective Areas. HCAs are designated areas where prairie dogs exist in natural settings with natural disturbance regimes, without being disrupted by external forces. MOAs are targeted agricultural lands where the majority of prairie dog removal is occurring.

Schnarr outlined one of the non-lethal forms of removal, prairie dog barrier fencing:

“It’s chicken wire and flops over a foot or two at the top so that prairie dogs can’t scale up or get through… so they can’t enter through properties where we don’t want them. Obviously, they can still do a massive tunneling job if they need to plan a great escape,” Schnarr said.

This year Boulder County staff and volunteers installed 12,418 feet of fencing on 10 different properties double the amount of prairie do,g fencing compared to last year, Schnarr stated. She added that Boulder County has utilized lethal control on 19,633 burrows on 32 properties and treated 328 acres in Boulder County.

After the presentation was finished, Boulder County opened up the floor for any attendee’s questions. When apprehensive community members asked what type of lethal control was being used, Schnarr answered.

“We do lethal control of properties on agricultural properties all over the county … we use carbon monoxide”, said Schnarr.

Senior Wildlife Biologist Mac Kobza added to Schnarr’s comment:

“We looked at veterinarian ethics and standards … wildlife people don’t like to kill animals but this method seemed to be a more humane approach to control prairie dogs,” Kobza said.

A man in the meeting asked how many prairie dogs have been killed annually and if the county had considered any coexistence strategies. Initially, Schnarr answered by mentioning euthanasia efforts on private agricultural properties but her response was cut short by the man asking further questions.

“I don’t think we need to demonize farmers because that doesn’t help the conversation,” Schnarr said.

After community members asked a couple of follow-up questions, the meeting ended an hour early. Attendees were encouraged to approach Schnarr and Kobza individually if they had further questions.

For more information about prairie dog management and removal in Boulder County, visit www.boco.org/PrairieDogs. Reach out to Resource Specialist Amy Schwartz with questions or concerns at 303-829-5497 or aschwartz@bouldercounty.gov.