Boulder trustees hear heated public debate and staff update on prairie dog management and agricultural restoration

Public comment at the Feb. 11 Open Space Board of Trustees meeting centered on prairie dog management, and OSMP staff presented a year-end update on occupancy, control and restoration efforts.

Elizabeth Black and Paula Schuler urged expanded lethal control, arguing that relocations are costlier per acre and that current moratorium modifications are too restrictive for a likely dry 2026. Schuler told trustees that OSMP treated 345 acres with lethal control in 2025 and that occupied acres fell about 7% from 5,510 to 5,124, while warning continued drought could fuel rapid expansion.

Prairie dog advocates Lindsey Sterling Crank and others asked the board to prioritize coexistence strategies and nonlethal tools. Sterling Crank, who works in prairie dog conflict resolution, praised staff innovation and urged continued support for restoration and shared-learning efforts, saying, "we can't relocate our way out of it. We also can't kill our way out of it." (Lindsey Sterling Crank)

Staff framed the program as having two strands: conservation and conflict-reduction led by the ecological stewardship team, and an agricultural land restoration program focused on irrigated fields. Heather Swanson, deputy director for resource stewardship, said staff distributed plague vaccine across roughly 250 acres and used live relocation where possible; Brian Lieberman described monitoring that found 5,124 occupied acres and 111 active colonies in 2025.

Eric Verley, agricultural restoration manager, said staff used park machines ("perk" machines) on about 345 acres in 2025 (250 follow-up acres, 95 initial sites) and that restoration work now spans 31 sites totaling 1,747 acres. He said six sites (115 acres) are complete and many others require multiple growing seasons, with some projects projected to finish between 2029 and 2032.

Verley described restoration steps—keyline plowing, seeding (681 acres in 2025), burrow leveling (204 acres), composting, irrigation and barrier installation—and noted the program installed roughly 900 feet of hard barrier and more than 5,200 feet of poultry wire in 2025. He said the department will remove prairie dogs from roughly 140 acres on Boulder Valley Ranch in 2026 and continue follow-up control on other properties.

On the seasonal restrictions, staff said they will conduct "limited perk" operations on previously cleared properties during winter months to reduce newborn exposure during the pupping season. Heather and Eric explained the concern that lethal burrow treatments during pupping can leave dependent young vulnerable, and staff said the current approach seeks to avoid that outcome while still preventing re-occupation.

Board members pressed staff for more quantitative measures of agricultural productivity gains from restoration and for clarity on how restoration priorities are set. Trustees also noted the public's split views: many written comments submitted through OSMP email addressed management and agricultural concerns, while the packet of public comments was weighted toward prairie dog conservation messages submitted through a dedicated meeting email. Staff confirmed that all comments received via the dedicated email were included in the packet.

The board did not take a policy vote on prairie dog management at the meeting; staff said packet materials and a more detailed March memo would include additional data and, where feasible, draft conservation-easement templates and other materials requested by trustees. The board indicated it expects further discussion and potential decisions in future meetings.