Posted on 02/11/2003 7:44:15 AM PST by Theodore R.
End justifies means for prairie dog hunter By LINDA KANE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
A bit of trickery is involved in luring prairie dogs from their burrows at the city's wastewater pasture east of town, but what awaits them on the other side is a home on the range.
Believing they were instrumental in groundwater contamination, the city last year was prepared to kill thousands of prairie dogs at the land application site on East 50th Street.
Instead, the city allows prairie dog catcher Lynda Watson to capture and relocate the animals to area farms and ranches.
Watson was at the site Monday to demonstrate how the prairie dogs are flushed from their homes with a large water hose and trapped. After capture, the animals are quarantined for two weeks to be sure they're not diseased when released at their new homes, Watson said.
"It's a great compromise," Watson said. "The animals are not going to be killed."
Thousands of the animals live at the site, but only about 600 need to be removed, Watson said. She's about halfway through the process.
The city intends to lure the remaining animals to sites outside the irrigated acres.
A controversy began in June when the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a violation notice to the city for failing to control nitrate levels at the wastewater application farm east of the city. The prairie dogs were thought to contribute to the problem, but that notion is now being reconsidered.
On Monday, Watson and a partner captured two prairie dogs after flushing them out of a hole with water. Watson puts her head over the hole and listens for the prairie dogs to bustle about and said there's a "certain amount of trickery to get these animals out."
Once the animals are removed, their holes are covered with dirt.
Watson said she catches between 3,400 and 4,400 prairie dogs per year.
Burrowing owls also live in prairie dog burrows and are common at the wastewater site, but so far Watson hasn't found any, she said.
Diane Selby, a biologist and project coordinator for Lake Alan Henry, has been monitoring the removal project. She said the city has allotted $20,000 this fiscal year for the project.
"Even though, yes, it's expensive, it's a win-win for the city," Selby said.
It's costing the city more money to remove the animals than it would to kill them, Watson said.
"It's time consuming and it would be so much easier for the city to kill them," Watson said. "This is most definitely a wonderful thing the city is doing."
lkane@lubbockonline.com 766-8754
sounds like a peta plot, to get rid of the cows...
It doesn't work on my WebTV, but when I used to work on a computer, Mole was a lot of fun! Really sharpened one's coordination!
g
Picturing drowned birds in my mind LOL
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