Over one hundred prairie dogs that live next to the Harvest Junction Village neighborhood in Longmont will likely be killed in March after the Homeowners Association board voted to move forward with an extermination plan.The HOA board is giving activists and community members who don’t want the animals to be killed until March 1 to move the colony, but activists say that timeline is impossible.“This rushed decision disregards both resident input and the humane, cost-effective solutions that are available if the board delays extermination,” Longmont prairie dog advocate Jaime Fraina says in a statement.Over seventy residents signed a petition asking to delay extermination in favor of relocation or other management strategies. According to Fraina, the earliest the prairie dogs could be moved is later in the spring because of state permitting requirements and relocation site availability.At a Harvest Junction HOA meeting January 20, residents asked for a formal poll of the community to see what people really want to do about the prairie dogs, but that request was denied.Harvest Junction resident Eva Garon doesn’t want to see the prairie dog colony eliminated. She says her family chose to buy their property last summer because it is next to the field where the animals live, and fostering a connection to nature is important for her two-year-old son.“We point to the ducks and the geese and the eagles and the hawks and the prairie dogs, and he knows them all and he loves to see them,” Garon says. “We want more animals, not less.”The HOA board has cited tree destruction by prairie dogs, which have been associated with plague in the past. However, residents and Fraina, who lives in the neighboring property, dispute that claim, and the CDPHE has only documented seven cases of plague connected to prairie dogs in Colorado since 1957.Garon says no prairie dogs have wandered into her yard, which is right next to the colony. She wishes more residents were asked about their thoughts and experiences with the nearby wildlife.According to Garon, the new HOA board was elected largely by proxy vote as the new board members went around the neighborhood and asked anyone who couldn’t make the election meeting to sign their votes over; many people did. Garon says it wasn’t clear during the HOA board campaign that eliminating the prairie dogs would be a priority for those who ended up in positions of power in the neighborhood.“It kind of took us off guard,” she says.Once people realized prairie dog extermination was on the table, a few arguments emerged. Some residents didn’t want to spend the estimated $6,000 for extermination while there was a free relocation option available.Fraina started a GoFundMe campaign that has raised over $3,200 toward a relocation effort for the colony. Fraina also worked with local prairie dog relocator Susan Sommers who agreed to catch and move the animals for only the cost of transportation, bait and supplies. Additionally, nonprofit Grasslands Colorado offered to pay “rent” for the animals until they are moved through its ambassador program , which compensates property owners for allowing prairie dogs to live on their land.The GoFundMe dollars could also be used to pay for a temporary barrier that would keep prairie dogs on open parkland until relocation rather than allowing them to get on the HOA property or into Harvest Junction yards. Boulder County Open Space has a design for a chicken wire fence with a portion that goes into the ground so that the animals can’t burrow underneath. Fraina estimates a relocation and barrier would cost between $3,000 and $4,000.Garon says a barrier isn’t a priority for her, but she knows some of her neighbors are interested in that option. She’s also heard a suggestion of installing perches so birds of prey would have places to hang out near the colony for natural population control.“I love that idea, because we love being so close to nature and it’s such a great educational opportunity,” she says. “[The decision] is just very dismissive of what some of the community wants, and it’s really sad because it’s causing a lot of divisiveness in the neighborhood.
