LAWTON – Lawton will launch a campaign this fall to reduce, but not eliminate, the city’s population of black-tailed prairie dogs.
The city has asked the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for a permit to conduct a campaign aimed at culling the prairie dog population at three properties around town, said Kurk Kulkinski, wildlife diversity and research supervisor for the department. He said Wildlife officials are planning to issue the permit.
“We feel like there was a lot of thought and effort put into this permit application,” he said during the Lawton City Council’s Sept. 13 meeting. “Biologically and ecologically, we see the validity of this, and we’re willing to support the city by issuing a permit.”
The campaign will begin in mid-October and continue for 90 days, communications and marketing director Caitlin Gatlin said in an email to a Southwest Ledger reporter. The city will distribute pellets containing the pesticide zinc phosphide at Elmer Thomas Park, O.H. Arnold Park and the vacant lot off Second Street north of the JoAnn Fabric and Crafts store.
Areas where city officials want to keep prairie dogs will not be treated as heavily as other areas.
The campaign is intended to reduce the prairie dog population but not eliminate it, Gatlin said.
“This is not going to eradicate the entire prairie dog population at any of the targeted locations,” she said. “This is going to cull off a portion of the population in order to mitigate the damage the prairie dogs are causing to the city, along with helping keep the remaining prairie dog population healthy.”
Prairie dog control
The city needs to take steps to thin out the number of prairie dogs, Gatlin said. She said the rodents are chewing through utility lines and eating through asphalt, creating holes in city roads.
The prairie dogs are also running out of room in the areas where they live, prompting them to expand their colonies onto private property.
“The large burrows they have dug are also a safety concern,” Gatlin said. “Elmer Thomas Park is frequented by visitors, and anyone walking or running through the park could get seriously injured if the stepped into one of those burrows.”
She said reducing the prairie dog population will make colonies healthier, since they will not have to compete for essential resources.
Kulkinski said the city has good reasons for controlling the prairie dog population. For instance, heavily used areas such as city parks lack natural predators that could help control the population.
Overpopulation leads prairie dogs to consume more resources than normal, which would likely result in starvation and suffering for the rodents. Also, overpopulation makes it easier for sylvatic plague – a flea-borne disease that affects prairie dogs – to spread through a colony.
"The longer you sustain a population that’s in excess of where it should be – when you’re dealing with overpopulation – now you’re seeing the possibility – the potential – of plague taking over that colony and really causing some damage,” Kulkinski said.
He added that sylvatic plague is not directly transmitted to people to the point that it would create human health problems.
He said prairie dogs can destroy property, a problem which is currently confined to city-owned land but could jeopardize adjacent properties as well.
Other methods
Relocating prairie dogs can be tricky because it’s difficult to find a landowners who will receive them, Kulkinski said
“You have to find a willing partner to say, ‘OK, you can take prairie dogs from the city of Lawton’s property and put them on my property,’ whether that’s a public entity, a private entity or whatever,” he said. “People aren’t clamoring to accept prairie dogs and potentially have problems of their own.”
He said relocating prairie dogs takes a lot of effort and is extremely stressful for them. Another method of prairie dog control – pumping soapy water into burrows and catching the prairie dogs as they leave – is also labor-intensive and could kill some of them.
Councilman Jay Burk said the city’s prairie dog population is expanding, and officials must act to bring it under control.
“I’ve heard from Lawton Public Schools where they’ve got some ball fields – that Lawton High School football field and some baseball fields – where prairie dogs are now migrating into those fields, and so we’re starting to see it move further to the west,” he said. “And then there are some people on the Ferris side – across the street – that now have them really taking over their yards.
“So, we’ve got to do something. I think this idea of eradication’s got to happen.”
Councilwoman Linda Chapman said taking steps to control the prairie dog population – especially in Elmer Thomas Park – is also a safety issue.
“We have Holiday in the Park,” she said. “We have festivals at night, and if you have to park and walk in the night time … those holes can be very dangerous. So for me, it’s also a safety factor.”