Prairie Protection Colorado

05/30/2026

Here are more photos of the 11th generation of Mountain Meadow Prairie Dogs that all of you helped us save (they were rescued from a beautiful prairie that was destroyed for a mall back in 2015)! Notice how BEAUTIFUL their colony is, which is a result of native seeds being planted alongside the prairie dogs. They have made this an amazing and diverse plantscape. We love them so much!

05/28/2026

Thank you, Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance! It is inconceivable what wildlife has to navigate in a human landscape of annihilation and loss. We pray this little one will make it and survive after rehabilitation.

05/27/2026

Check out this beautiful prairie dog print, available now! This incredibly talented artist is not only creating stunning work, but she’s also donating 10% of the proceeds to Prairie Protection to help safeguard this important keystone species.

Such a generous and meaningful project! If you love prairie dogs or want to support conservation through art, this is a wonderful opportunity.

https://www.johannamuellerprints.com/product-page/print-edition-prairie-dog

Prairie Dogs appear to be cute ground squirrels, but they are much more. They are keystone species for their habitats, essential in keeping balance in the grasslands. Prairie Dogs are food for Coyote, Badger, Raptors and Eagles and notably one of the only food sources for the Black Footed Ferret, wh...

05/23/2026

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05/23/2026

We are failing as a society.

05/22/2026

So many of us poured years of hard work, love, and effort into relocating prairie dogs that were in harm’s way; trapping, transporting, and releasing them at the Pueblo Chemical Depot site because it offered one of the best remaining shortgrass prairie habitats available.

Now that same land is being redeveloped, with Voyager Technologies building a new defense manufacturing complex at PuebloPlex. Construction is already underway on part of the former depot.

https://www.rmpbs.org/news/business-economy/voyager-technology-pueblo-colorado-site

After all that work to restore prairie dog colonies there, I have to ask:
What’s happening to the prairie dogs in the construction and operations zones?

Are they being relocated again, or will lethal control be used where they conflict with building and testing areas?

It feels heartbreaking to see habitat we helped restore now facing industrial development.

Bombs over burrows: development priorities once again coming at a cost to the wildlife we worked so hard to save. Will anything be left when we are all gone?

Does anyone have more details on what is happening to the prairie dogs on this site?

05/20/2026

This needs to end, and the CPW Commissioners have a petition before them to vote on. Yes, it must pass!!

A bunch of guys with guns converge on Comanche National Grasslands and set their sights on a prairie dog colony. They rain hellfire on the animals and, on social media, boast about the carnage.

“Three of us shot 316 today in our favorite dog town. Makes 2,527 for the year so far,” one said on Facebook. “Eric had a head count of 66! Mine was 31,” another crowed.

Question: What’s their goal? It’s not “hunting.” The shooters don’t eat prairie dogs or sell their fur. The object is not wildlife “management.” CPW lists prairie dogs as a “species of greatest conservation need” (see screenshot below). They are a keystone species, meaning that other species depend on them, but the shooters leave the animals’ bodies on the ground, tainted with lead, which harms other species.

Since prairie dogs have a high “conservation need,” and given that CPW vows to be guided by science, what scientific rationale is there for prairie dogs’ unlimited recreational shooting?

https://scienceforcowildllife.substack.com/p/right-to-hunt-crowd-embraces-ballot

05/19/2026

This troubling ballot initiative, backed by trophy hunters, seeks to enshrine their preferred practices into Colorado’s constitution. The public needs to understand the serious harms it could cause to wildlife, science-based management, and all Coloradans, including ethical hunters who support responsible conservation.

Editorial voice Ryan Davis

05/15/2026

COLORADO: WAKE UP AND PAY ATTENTION!

Signature gatherers are flooding streets, stores, and events right now, hired guns pushing Initiative 302, slickly marketed as “Save the Hunt” or a “Right to Hunt and Fish.”

Here’s the truth they don’t want you hearing: Hunting and fishing are ALREADY legal in Colorado. State law already makes them the primary tool for wildlife management.

So what is this constitutional amendment really about?

It would lock “hunting and fishing as the preferred means” into our Constitution, slap on a vague “necessary” standard for any regulation, and open the floodgates to lawsuits against CPW biologists every time they try to act on science, before a disease outbreak explodes, before populations crash, before habitat disasters hit.

It doesn’t protect traditions. It handcuffs the experts and puts wildlife at risk.

This is dangerous.

Read this outstanding, must-share breakdown from Colorado Backcountry News that cuts through the spin: https://coloradobackcountrynews.substack.com/p/hunting-is-already-legal-in-colorado

We HAVE to educate everyone. Don’t sign anything until you’ve read it. Talk to your family, friends, neighbors, and hunting buddies.

Share this post like Colorado's wildlife depends on it, because it does.

We can’t sit this one out.

Initiative 302 says it trusts CPW biologists.

Then it tries to put language in the Colorado Constitution that could make CPW’s decisions easier to challenge when biologists need to reduce licenses, close a season, respond to disease, or protect habitat.

That is the problem.

Wildlife management needs flexibility. Wyoming just showed why. Disease hit wolves near Yellowstone, numbers dropped, and managers moved to cut the hunt limit.

That is what real wildlife management looks like. You respond to the data.

Hunting is already legal in Colorado. Fishing is already legal too.

302 goes further.

It could tie CPW’s hands and give opponents of wildlife restrictions more leverage every time the agency needs to act.

Read the full piece below. The fine print is where 302 gets ugly.

https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradobackcountrynews/p/hunting-is-already-legal-in-colorado