Colorado volunteers work to conserve prairie dog colony
CBS
In January, CBS Colorado spoke to neighbors in Harvest Junction Village, where the HOA was considering removing or exterminating a colony of prairie dogs. It had cited concerns over plant destruction and the animals encroaching on homes.
At one point, the HOA voted to try relocation, and to exterminate the colony by March 1 if that effort was not successful. Activists spoke out that this would lead to the death of the animals, saying relocation is not possible until summer. But after continued pushback from neighbors, a new plan has been reached.
"Big picture goal here is really to try and show that humans in close proximity can live at peace without conflict with local wildlife," said Mike MacFerrin, who lives in Harvest Junction Village.
Dozens of neighbors donated their Memorial Day to the animals by building bridges and pulling weeds -- the first step in a plan that could keep the prairie dogs in their community.
"This is gonna be a multiple day and multiple year process for the revegetation. This particular curly dock weed is extremely pernicious and persistent," MacFerrin said. "It's invasive. The prairie dogs don't eat it. .. And, as it gets taller, it forces them out."
It's all to convince their HOA not to evict the prairie dogs living on a plot of open space near their homes.
"This is my community, and I don't wanna spend several thousand dollars just to come out with poison gas trucks and kill everything," MacFerrin said. "We can do this a better way."
After a community survey sent out by the activist neighbors found most responding residents did not want to kill the prairie dogs, or spend HOA money on management, the HOA board agreed to allow the neighbors to propose a long-term conservation plan.
"Extermination is currently off the charts. Basically, our two options are relocation down to Pueblo or the conservation option," said Alex Pavloff, Harvest Junction Village HOA board member.
These neighbors say keeping the prairie dogs around will be a win-win, and won't cost the HOA a cent.
"We're out here doing the work," MacFerrin. "There's a lot of invasive weeds here that we're trying to get rid of that actually push the prairie dogs out."
They're working with experts and nonprofits to draft the conservation plan, which includes not only weeding, but reseeding the land with native vegetation, and building a barrier fence to keep prairie dogs away from homes and the road.
MacFerrin said reseeding and fencing can be expensive, so they're raising money to pay for those infrastructure changes through Grasslands Colorado. So far, they've raised more than $8,000.
Among the volunteers are three HOA board members, who will have the ultimate say on whether the prairie dogs stay or are relocated.
"This is a novel new way to manage prairie dogs on our Front Range," said Pavloff, who previously supported relocation. "I changed my mind really because of the fact that we have a good opportunity to try a new and novel method of prairie dog management."
The neighbors will deliver the first draft of the master plan to the HOA next week. Their next meeting is scheduled on June 19. Neighbors say the final decision to conserve or relocate will need to be made in July, as relocation should begin in August.
It's a plan the neighbors hope can be an example to other communities.
"Just changing the narrative that you don't have to exterminate everything," MacFerrin said. "You don't have to just treat this like it's a second-rate golf fairway. You really can let nature thrive, and we can thrive with it."
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