DENVER – Prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets can sleep easier tonight knowing that lawmakers in the state of Colorado have their back.
Senate Bill 202 would transfer $1.5 million from the Species Conservation Trust Fund to programs designed to protect native species that are on the endangered species list or at risk of being placed on the list.
SB 202, sponsored by Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, was passed Thursday by the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee on a 10-1 vote after testimony from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and two water advocacy groups.
Coram pushing for the allocation of funding for the programs has become routine.
“This seems like groundhog day the last few years for me because I have had the pleasure of bringing this bill,” he said.
In this year’s incarnation there are provisions for the allocation of $600,000 to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, $150,000 to the mitigation of nonnative fish, such as the smallmouth bass, $375,000 toward conservation efforts for aquatic wildlife and $375,000 towards terrestrial wildlife.
Which brings us back to prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets.
The money allocated to native terrestrial wildlife conservation will be used in part for the development and deployment of a vaccine for sylvatic plague, which drastically affects prairie dog populations, said David Kulte, representative for CPW.
The plague is a bacterial disease spread by fleas that can be devastating to prairie dog towns, with mortality rates reaching as high as 90 percent, according to the National Wildlife Health Center’s website.
The black-footed ferret is also highly susceptible to the disease, but the impact it has on prairie dog populations is perhaps more damning for the predators.
“Black-footed ferrets are a federally endangered species which depend on the existence of prairie dogs for prey and for den sites,” Klute said.
To remove these rodents from the endangered species list sustainable populations must be established.
The toll taken on both the ferrets and prairie dogs by sylvatic plague is a large barrier to that, and vaccination is a valuable first step towards remedying the problem, Klute said.
While the bill was passed by the committee without debate, and heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee, there was talk of one potential amendment.
“I had thought about running a conceptual amendment changing the name of the prairie dog to the prairie rat but I decided not to do that today,” Coram said.
Lperkins@durangoherald.com
