Program aims to protect prairie dog habitat

SALT LAKE CITY — A new program to pay farmers and ranchers to protect Utah prairie dogs on their land may help finally push the threatened animals off the endangered species list, according to organizers.

About $400,000 in federal funds will pay for a pilot program to buy conservation easements on private land with at least 20 prairie dogs on 40 acres. The landowner could still farm and ranch but not develop the land.

Developers elsewhere could then purchase credits to offset their effects on prime prairie dog habitat.

The prairie dogs in southern Utah have been federally protected since 1973. They have struggled to recover, partly because about 75 percent live on private land with few guaranteed protections, so they don't count toward the government's population goals.

The cinnamon-colored rodent has been a source of frustration for some locals in recent years, who say its protected status has hindered development and economic growth in one of state's fastest-growing areas.

Organizers of the new "credits exchange program" say it has the potential to boost protection on private land, increase prairie dog numbers and provide developers willing to pay extra with a way to build on certain land that already has prairie dogs.

"We decided we needed to have some way of making these little critters, instead of a liability, make them an asset," said Mark Petersen, environmental issues specialist with the Utah Farm Bureau Federation.

For voluntary landowners, that could mean getting paid to allow the prairie dogs to remain on their property. The initial cash for the program likely will only cover one or two conservation easements. Credits purchased by developers could pay for others. The program could eventually fund itself, said Erica Wightman, who's helping coordinate the effort for local nonprofit councils associated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The idea was modeled after a similar program in Fort Hood, Texas, to help a songbird called the golden-cheeked warbler around the military installation.

Environmental Defense Fund — which was already working on another program to protect the prairie dog in southern Utah — got a federal grant in 2007 to develop the credit exchange program. That eventually led to a $400,000 earmark to provide seed money for the pilot program.

Supporters said they've already seen interest from some locals. The first easements could be signed this spring.