Protection zone for prairie dogs expanded

The U.S. Forest Service has expanded a protection zone for prairie dogs with an eye toward someday supporting a population of black-footed ferrets on the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Ferrets are unlikely to frolic on the grassland any time soon, however. Plans to reintroduce ferrets in locations around Wyoming have ground to a halt. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department wants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to guarantee that reintroduced ferrets won’t ever be listed as an endangered species, said Bob Oakleaf, nongame species coordinator for the state agency. Currently the only ferret population in Wyoming is in the Shirley Basin between Laramie and Casper. Plans had been under way to reintroduce ferrets on the Thunder Basin National Grassland and elsewhere in Wyoming. Then, in 2009, environmental groups petitioned to protect reintroduced populations of black-footed ferret populations in Arizona, Wyoming and South Dakota. The Fish and Wildlife Service denied the petition last May, but Oakleaf said Wyoming landowners who might have allowed ferrets on their property have become skittish. They remain worried that an endangered species listing would restrict how they could use their land...more