In Utah, conservation easements key to protecting prairie-dog populations

The government is offering private landowners money to protect southern Utah's prairie-dog populations. Five landowners already have applied for a program that buys conservation easements, leaving land undeveloped for the prairie dogs. Developers can buy so-called habitat credits to evict or work around prairie dogs on other lands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft recovery plan for the Utah prairie dog last week. Officials say 80 percent of the colonies reside on private land, so a conservation program is critical to maintaining stable populations. "We believe that recovery of the species will be achieved more rapidly if we increase conservation of the species on these lands in a way that benefits private landowners and Utah prairie dogs simultaneously," said Laura Romin, assistant supervisor for a Fish and Wildlife Service field office in Utah. The recovery plan also seeks to protect prairie dogs on federal land...more