AOK News Release December 20, 2007
A wondrous event occurred just before sunset on Tuesday evening--a week before Christmas. Twenty-four Black-footed Ferret pups were released in the wild to begin the restoration of a vibrant part of the Kansas wildlife heritage missing for fifty years. This was a heart-warming and historic occasion. The ferrets were released on private properties in Logan County, Kansas. Fourteen were divided between two release sites approximately two miles apart on ranchlands owned by Larry Haverfield, Gordon Barnhardt and Maxine Blank.
The release of these ferrets is the cumulative result of more than two years of perseverance by these determined wildlife-friendly landowners, and decades of attention by Audubon staff in Manhattan. This Audubon of Kansas initiative links back in an intriguing way to the trip that John James Audubon made up the Missouri River in 1843. Audubon was the first to document the existence of Black-footed Ferrets for scientific purposes. Museum records indicate that Kansas was a significant “stronghold” for Black-footed Ferrets prior to poisoning campaigns intended to essentially exterminate prairie dogs from all of their historic range in the western two-thirds of the state.
Ron Klataske, Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas, was invited in September 2005 to tour several Logan County ranches with prairie dog colonies and help document ecological values for other wildlife. It was soon apparent that as many as three different private ranch complexes had the potential to support experimental reintroductions of Black-footed Ferrets.
In a partnership initiative with Audubon of Kansas, five landowner families with 26,000 acres of ranchland sent a letter in November 2005 requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluate their properties for potential reintroduction of the endangered Black-footed Ferret. Two Logan County ranch landowners, Gordon Barnhardt of Bucklin and Gene Bertrand of Wallace, had separately contacted wildlife agencies two decades earlier to indicate a willingness to host ferrets on their land following the discovery of a small population in Wyoming in 1981 and establishment of a captive breeding program to bring them back from the brink of extinction.
Mapping of the colonies documented that prairie dogs were scattered over approximately 6,000 acres within their contiguous ranches consisting of 10,000 acres. It is the only prairie dog complex of this size in Kansas, fulfilling key goals of the state’s prairie dog management and wildlife diversity plans, and the top rated site for potential recovery of Black-footed Ferrets in Kansas.
Larry Haverfield and Gordon Barnhardt have been at the forefront of a major conservation controversy that has pitted them and their attorney, Randy Rathbun of Wichita, against attorneys representing Logan County commissioners and the Kansas Farm Bureau . These wildlife-friendly landowners have resisted the efforts to force them and other landowners to poison their lands to exterminate prairie dogs. Prairie dogs are a keystone species within the shortgrass prairie ecosystem. Prairie Dogs provide habitat and serve as prey for a diverse array of other species including Black-footed Ferrets, Burrowing Owls, Golden Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks and Swift Foxes.
Klataske said these wildlife heroes have invested tens of thousands of dollars defending their right to conserve native wildlife on their land. The century-old state statutes that allow county commissions to mandate eradication and enter private lands with poison campaigns to kill native wildlife violates ever acceptable concept of property rights and modern conservation standards. Poisoning with Rozol and Phostoxin results in poisoning of Swift Foxes, Burrowing Owls, Bald and Golden Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks and many other species.
Decades of thoughtless destruction of wildlife nearly or completely exterminated Eskimo Curlews, Whooping Cranes, Bison, Pronghorn Antelope, Black-footed Ferrets and many other species from the Great Plains. Sadly, those same perversive attitudes continue to this day, demanding eradication of Black-tailed Prairie Dogs and elimination of the “ecosystem” of wildlife diversity they support.
With antiquated state statutes imposed for more than a century, poisoning campaigns designed to eradicate prairie dogs are still being imposed on ranch landowners without their permission. Audubon of Kansas has taken the leadership role in asking the Kansas legislature to repeal and revise the most destructive sections of those statutes. Our recommendations are reflected in Senate Bill 257.
In addition to the fourteen ferrets released on the large prairie dog complex within the Haverfield/Barnhardt/Blank properties, ten were taken to The Nature Conservancy’s property ten miles to the east which has been managed to retain approximately 2,000 acres of prairie dogs within the Smoky Valley Ranch Preserve.
Audubon of Kansas has been and will continue to provide the most active organizational leadership role in the tremendously promising opportunity to bring captivity-raised Black-footed Ferrets back to Kansas for reintroduction on ranches where the landowners welcome the chance to host this endangered species. Recovery of this species is a natural priority for Audubon of Kansas, and it is an honor to work with these heroic families--and dedicated biologists within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Special thanks go to all of you who have helped in many ways to make potential recovery of this endangered species possible.
