Prairie Dogs Hold Court In Lafayette, Escaping Eradication

LAFAYETTE, CO -- It's tough to get rid of a prairie dog in Boulder County. For the next six months, that will be truer than ever after the Lafayette City Council instituted an emergency moratorium Tuesday evening on any rodent removals while the city revises its permitting process, reported the Longmont Times-Call.

The perennial issue sprouted up again recently after activists stymied a removal effort on city land in July. This time the restriction extends to private property, where landowners previously had free reign to deal with the dogs. The embargo went into effect immediately, according to the Times-Call.

Currently, in order to use lethal methods of removal, landowners must be able to prove that they attempted other measures of eradication first. Boulder may prove an local example for more restrictive regulations on the matter.

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In part, Tuesday night's resolution reads: "There is need for a comprehensive study of wildlife protection approaches and specific prairie dog management techniques and of the cost impacts of regulatory programs designed to cause landowners to follow a decision-making process that emphasizes certain strategies for addressing prairie dog/human land use conflicts."

Get the full story from the Times-Call here.

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