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Black-tooted Ferret Report <br />Dowe Flats Projcn <br />' 5.4.4 CONTROL OF PRAIRIE DOGS ON RECLAIMED AREAS <br />' Because of the protracted period of mining activity following initial construction clearance <br />surveys, the USFWS (B. Leachman, pers. comm.) has advocated time and site-specific <br />' recommendations for ferret surveys on reclaimed lands where prairie dogs are controlled to <br />facilitate vegetative establishment. Two types of reclaimed land will be at issue: (1) <br />t reclaimed mined ]ands and (2) retired and reclaimed agricultural lands. Each land type and <br />recommended protocol is described below. <br />1 <br />5.4.4.1 Reclaimed Minine Areas <br />As mining incrementally advances northward, by approximately 10-12 acres per year, <br />' comparable acreages will be reclaimed in a native prairie community behind mining <br />(Southdown 1993a, b). These reclaimed areas, which were just recently active mining areas, <br />' will have no prairie dogs on them. However, because of reclamation standards, prairie dogs <br />must be excluded from reclamation until adequate vegetative establishment and bond <br />release. Therefore, immediately following seeding, a visual barrier will be established to <br />exclude prairie dogs to facilitate vegetative establishment. Prairie dogs that cross barriers <br />into reclaimed areas will be routinely controlled by zinc phosphide poisoning or shot without <br />prior ferret surveys (unless ferret surveys for incremental mining advances cover these <br />areas). <br />' 5.4.4.2 Retired Agricultural Lands <br />The Dowe Flats valley bottom has been under various types of agricultural use for the last <br />' 120 years. Portions of the Dowe Flats Permit Area are presently in small grain and other <br />agricultural crops. According to Soil Conservation Service (SCS 1975) guidelines, SCS <br />' (1985), and Holistic Resource Management (1987 and D. Antonio, HRM, pers. comm.), the <br />soils in these areas should never have been plowed. Southwestern has proposed to retire <br />' portions of this agricultural land and restore the native prairie. <br />Although prairie dogs annually attempt to invade the peripheries of some of these marginal <br />croplands, they are poisoned and plowed under by the lessee several times each year. These <br />areas were covered by summer 1994 construction clearance surveys. However, at present, <br />' there is no time frame for retiring these agricultural lands. These ]ands could be retired the <br />year following clearance surveys, or several years later. No ferret surveys are proposed for <br />' Western Ecosystems, Inc. t'7 November, 1994 <br />