Residents and relocators urge council to review prairie-dog policy after two poisonings

Multiple Lafayette residents and a professional prairie‑dog relocator urged the Lafayette City Council on Aug. 5 to reopen and clarify local policy after two recent prairie‑dog poisonings and what speakers described as a lack of transparency in permit handling.

"These actions conducted in the early hours with little transparency have greatly shaken the public trust," said Deb Jones, president of Prairie Dog Action, who told the council she has more than 30 years’ experience relocating prairie dogs and that she offered live‑relocation support to staff and the private landowner prior to the July 25 and Aug. 1 poisonings.

Jones said she submitted a live‑relocation estimate for $10,000 and later reduced it to $5,400 to match an extermination bid, but the landowner proceeded with poisoning. She and other speakers told council they believe staff turnover and a loss of institutional knowledge contributed to misapplication of the city’s 2020 Prairie Dog Management Ordinance.

"We need to reeducate the new open space staff and the new city staff about when a special permit is required to eradicate prairie dogs and when the advisory panel . . . needs to be informed," said Laurie Yamaya Thayer, a Lafayette resident. "We don't want to poison our land. We want to move these animals somewhere where they can thrive."

Residents who live near the affected colony described daily contact with prairie dogs and called the poisonings heartbreaking. "I walk by these prairie dogs multiple times a day with my dogs, and they're really stinking adorable," said Meredith Blanchard, who lives adjacent to the site near Wanaka Lake.

Several speakers asked council to reconvene the Prairie Dog Advisory Working Group to clarify ambiguities they said now exist in the 2020 ordinance, and to require clearer staff training and permit procedures. Huggins, another resident who identified himself as a long‑time volunteer with Prairie Dog Action, offered to continue serving on a reconvened group.

Vanessa Seabright, who said she owns Twice Exceptional Speech Language and Educational Therapy at 1135 Semoran Drive, described receiving a permit process that she called burdensome and expensive for her plans to move or exclude prairie dogs from a property used by medically fragile children. Seabright said she received relocation cost estimates up to roughly $36,000 and that an exclusion fence option she was quoted would cost about $80 per linear foot, an amount she said could exceed $90,000 for her site. She told the council she had pursued multiple bids and that some relocators she had hoped to use were not licensed or available.

Speakers repeatedly cited the 2020 Prairie Dog Management Ordinance and said it was written to prioritize humane alternatives; several asked the council to close what they called loopholes, restore institutional memory at the open‑space office, and rely more frequently on relocation when release sites are available. No formal action or vote on changes to the ordinance occurred at the meeting; speakers asked staff and council to evaluate options and return with recommendations.

Council members and staff did not offer a formal timeline at the podium. After public input closed, Mayor Mongeau and staff indicated they expect follow‑up from city staff and that members of council or staff would contact the speakers about next steps.