Environmental groups raised concerns last week about a Forest Service plan to change prairie dog management on grasslands, which they fear could harm the endangered black-footed ferrets that hunt and eat the rodents.
Those concerns stem from efforts by the Trump administration in recent months to boost beef production on federal land, as well as a Friday memorandum from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
In the memorandum to Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz on Friday, Rollins asked the agricultural agency to streamline permits to “remove barriers to grazing.”
Among those changes are a request to “develop a plan to provide additional flexibilities to manage prairie dogs, including analyzing opportunities to limit prairie dog habitat on allotments; increase buffers between colonies and private lands; and continue to work with ranchers and grazing associations on mutually agreeable solutions.”
