[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: CU to study impact of Prairie Dogs on grasslands

[kohls at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Wilson, Ken

The announcement below gives a little detail on a grant that has been awarded by NSF to Professor Tim Seastedt at CU Boulder.  The grant will allow Professor Seastedt and his students to study the impact of prairie dogs on grasslands around Boulder.  I was a student of Tim's for several years, looking at the unexpected impacts prairie dogs have had on some of our open space lands.  I read a great deal of the scientific literature on prairie dogs and became convinced that something has changed with respect to their impact on prairie land.  In many areas of Open Space around Boulder they seem to have a destructive rather than a constructive impact.  We have speculated as to the cause.  Tim has been trying to get funding to study the impacts for several years.  It is something that really needs to be done so we can understand what is happening and potentially change our policies about prairie dog management and relocation.  I am sure Professor Seastedt will be working with City and County open space management during the course of this study.

Ken Wilson
Deputy Mayor





Award from Division of Environmental Biology, NSF:

Ecosystem transformations along the Colorado Front Range: Prairie dog interactions with multiple components of global environmental change.

 $851,704.00    (3 years)  Tim Seastedt PI, Jesse Nippert (KSU) and Laurel Hartley (CU-Denver) Co-PIs.



In a nutshell: This study will measure how the new plant species are exploiting climate and resource changes, measure how grazing activities by prairie dogs are influenced by these new species, and assess the effects of these interactions on plant communities and soils. This research is important because it evaluates the contention that directional changes in climate and concurrent changes in plant species can alter the role of an animal from one that contributes to community resilience and diversity (i.e., a keystone species) to one that can alter community structure in previously undocumented ways (i.e., an ecosystem transformer).