Clare Tone

A Call to Action: Prairie Dog Management Practices

archives, Archives-Advocacy & public lands /

On Tuesday May 7th at 6:00 PM the City of Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees will be presenting their recommendations to Boulder City Council on prairie dog (PD) management. We are asking our members to please consider taking the time to attend this meeting, or to write a letter to all City Council members (e-mails below), and to support the OSBT’s recommendations (see attached). Boulder County has a rich agricultural heritage, which began in the late 1860s and the future of agriculture in Boulder County and the health of our grasslands should be of concern for all citizens. The mission of Boulder County Open Space is to preserve and protect the natural environment and land resources that characterize Boulder. We foster appreciation and uses that sustain the natural values of the land for current and future generations. The proper stewardship of our grasslands, includes maintaining a healthy balance for all species and should not favor one component to the detriment of others. Continuing to protect agriculture as way of life, and the farmers that lease and care for the open space agricultural properties also needs to be protected. The voice of private property owners and the concerns they have about adjoining open space land management practices also needs to be heard as escalating numbers of colonies are destroying their lands. No one denies that prairie dogs (PD) are important to the ecosystem, but when one species numbers causes the destruction of another through lack of natural predation, and destroys grasslands then they must be managed, and all […]

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Trailering 101: What an Informative and Fun Clinic!

Community News /

We would like to thank Christy Jemail and all our participants for coming out to Boulder Valley Ranch for the Trailering 101 clinic. What a beautiful day to be outside with Christy Jamail and all that attended our first Spring clinic! We were able to present three horses for Christy to work with, and also had three different trailer types at hand. For our demonstration we offered a: Bumber pull, two horse slant, Gooseneck, living quarters slant with a ramp and back tack room, and Two horse gooseneck slant with a back tack room The three horses at hand are boarded at Boulder Valley Ranch. Max, an Arabian had not loaded in some time; Moon, a mustang, had slight backing issues; and Nico, an Azteca, had bolting out issues. Christy started out with Max, and she quickly surmised that Max needed some ground work before she even thought about loading. Christy spent a good 30 minutes or more getting this geldings attention on her, while watching for him to relax and accept her as the leader. One of the things Max did was to throw his shoulder into her, so she worked on moving him away from her until he began to give her more respect. As the group watched, we had time for questions, learned ground techniques, and grew to understand the connection you need to establish with any horse before loading them into a trailer. When Christy felt that Max was ready she approached the ramp trailer. Max had never used one and it had

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What is Happening to Our OSMP Agricultural Lands and Open Space

archives, Archives-Advocacy & public lands /

All Boulder County Horse Owners, Agricultural Property Owners and Lease Holders, and Open Space and Mountain Parks Users should be concerned about the detrimental effects of having too many prairie dogs on our Open Space properties. We encourage you to get active now. That means getting out to attending City Council and Open Space and Mountain Parks meetings as much as you can in the next few weeks. Decisions are now being made about the forthcoming Grassland and OSMP Agricultural Land Management Plans that will affect us all. For starters, we will be seeing a 30% decrease in funding for OSMP management over the next few years. So what is the “prairie dog problem?” Over the last few years, many of our agricultural lands and open space properties have been dramatically and negatively affected by an over population of prairie dogs, which is the result of a lack of predators, fragmented land parcels, and current management policies. Essentially, the prairie dog problem is one of density and overgrazing, which has led to destruction of our agricultural land, diminished economic value, and a decline in ecological diversity. Although Boulder County authorities once believed that, “the presence of prairie dog colonies…leads to …overall species richness in the grassland prairie,”1 today’s increased density and size of the colonies has resulted in the opposite effect. Ranchers who have been leasing and managing open space lands are pulling out of their leases. Why? Because production yields of hay and grazing acres have been so depleted by the over grazing of prairie dogs. This

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