Utah Prairie Dog Recovery/Back From the Brink Program/Environmental Defense

COOPERATIVE CONSERVATION CASE STUDY

Building Partnerships With Private Landowners To Recover The Utah Prairie Dog

Location: Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic

Project Summary: This partnership's new approach has begun to show that private landowners will participate in the recovery of listed species, even controversial ones, given the right incentives.

Resource Challenge

Recovering listed species is a challenging business, especially with species that are considered agricultural pests by farmers and ranchers, like the Threatened Utah Prairie Dog. However, in recent years organizations and agencies across the country have shown that private landowners can play a pivotal role in the recovery of rare species and their habitats given the right tools.

This Partnership is using a new flexible, incentive-based approach with the Utah Prairie Dog that enlists the help of private landowners by utilizing financial incentives and regulatory assurances as tools. The Partners seek to employ this approach with the goal of fully recovering the species, and making it possible for the Service to de-list it. With dedicated funding, committed staff, and willing landowners they believe that significant progress can be made toward its recovery in as little as 5 years.

Examples of Key Partners

Private landowners (two individuals, one grazing association, and more pending), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Utah State University Extension Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, Environmental Defense, and others.

Results and Accomplishments

Since the Partnership began in 2003, 2 landowners and 1 grazing association have become involved. These projects involve the restoration of prairie dog habitat, and in one case the re-introduction of a new colony on private lands. Although small in size, these projects are highly significant in building trust within the private agricultural community. These model projects demonstrate that incentive-based approaches can help landowners overcome the economic and regulatory hurdles they may face in working with listed species. If this approach can work with controversial species like the prairie dog, it is likely to work for a host of other species across the country. The Partnership has already begun to see increased interest in participation from landowners. Five additional projects are pending.

In addition to the successes with individual landowners, the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration has developed a conservation bank on State lands. This conservation bank will restore habitat and increase prairie dog numbers mitigating for the take of prairie dogs in other locations. This project will restore several hundred acres of prairie dog habitat over the next decade.

Innovation/Highlight

This project utilizes a new flexible and effective conservation tool called "Safe Harbor." The idea behind Safe Harbor is that people who do good deeds for endangered wildlife should not be punished in doing so. In signing a Safe Harbor agreement, a landowner commits to restoring or enhancing endangered species habitat and the government pledges not to "punish" the good deed with added regulation. So far, two landowners have formed Safe Harbor agreements and others are interested. Although new, the use of this program across the country is growing. The Utah projects mark the first time this program has been implemented in Utah for any species, and the first nationwide for the prairie dog.

Project Contact

Theodore P. Toombs
Ecologist
Environmental Defense
2334 North Broadway
Boulder, CO, 80304
303-447-7210
ttoombs@environmentaldefense.org

Website: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/go/conservationincentives

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