The Hays Daily News

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Prairie dogs have day in court

Published on -11/20/2007, 12:56 PM

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By MIKE CORN Hays Daily News TOPEKA -- During the course of nearly four hours Tuesday, Shawnee County District Judge Charles Andrews got a glimpse into the ongoing prairie dog controversy in Logan County. Now, he must decide the depth of the "kill zone" that the Logan County Commission will be allowed to operate in. It's a decision he might not make until sometime in January. Tuesday was the county's hearing, in a manner of speaking. It came at the request of Logan County, in response to a temporary restraining order issued after the county started poisoning prairie dogs on rancher Larry Haverfield's land in September using Phostoxin, an especially toxic chemical that kills everything in a burrow where it is applied. Logan County hired Great Bend attorney Jim McVay, who is asking for a restraining order to prevent Haverfield from moving cattle into the area where the county is poisoning prairie dogs. Even though the hearing was in Topeka, about a dozen Logan County landowners made the trip there to listen to the testimony. Several attending the hearing have filed a lawsuit against Larry and Bette Haverfield, Gordon Barnhardt and Maxine Blank concerning the prairie dogs. That lawsuit was filed by Hays attorney Don Hoffman, who initially represented the county in its lawsuit against prairie dog supporters, a case that languished for months before being settled behind closed doors. Hoffman stepped aside after the settlement. Tuesday's hearing came about when Haverfield and Barnhardt sought to stop the use of Phostoxin on their land, requesting the temporary restraining order against the county and Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, which issued the permit to use the chemical. Initially, the county's current request covered virtually all of the 10,000 acres owned and managed by Haverfield. On Tuesday, Logan County Commissioner Carl Uhrich testified the kill zone should be at least a half-mile from any adjoining property. Anything less, he said, "you just as well draw a line on the ground and tell them not to cross it." Haverfield, on the other hand, would rather give the vegetative barriers he has constructed a chance to succeed, in tandem with inward shooting and poisoning -- using zinc phosphide -- along the borders of his property. Andrews asked if there was any distance agreeable to both sides. He didn't get an answer. Uhrich scoffed at the idea of a 90-foot barrier, and said a half-mile barrier only would work if "you go in and kill half of them in the core" of the prairie dog town. He went on to say the only way a personâö "can take care of a prairie dog problem is to kill them all." Much of the information at Tuesday's hearing has been told before, but this time it was in more formal setting, and Andrews ultimately could decide how much of the Haverfield complex could be poisoned. When he first cross-examined Uhrich, attorney Randy Rathbun, representing Haverfield and Barnhardt, noted Uhrich and Haverfield don't agree on much when it comes to prairie dogs. "There's some truth in that," Uhrich agreed. Uhrich generally has been the most strident opponent of prairie dogs among the three commissioners, and often has directed the county's action. In contrast, Haverfield and Barnhardt have tried to maintain prairie dog populations on their land and have signed agreements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offering up their land for an experimental black-footed ferret reintroduction program that has fostered the campaign against prairie dogs. The judge, prior to the start of the hearing, apparently had tried to quash the notion that Tuesday's hearing also would take in the ferret question. "I think the court needs to be aware of the effect a half-mile kill zone would have on a black-footed ferret program," Rathbun said. Killing prairie dogs that far into the property, he said, would effectively stop any ferret reintroduction program. Mike Lockhart, the FWS team leader for the ferret recovery program, also testified and detailed the proposal to reintroduce the endangered species. Without prairie dogs, he said, there would be no ferrets. "Prairie dogs are absolutely the most important mammal species in the prairie environment," Lockhart said. For the past two years, he said, the federal wildlife agency has set aside ferrets for Kansas. If they aren't released by January, he said, this year's allotment will have to go elsewhere. "My personal hope is that they will be in Kansas," he said. The timetable for submitting public comments on the proposal to release ferrets closed Monday. But, under cross-examination, Lockhart admitted if the kill zone is a half-mile wide, the reintroduction likely would not move forward. Even though he has spent nearly $20,000 for chemical control of prairie dogs and built 23 miles of barrier fence, Haverfield was undaunted. "We think it's the right thing to do," he said. Special-projects reporter Mike Corn can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 129, or by e-mail at mcorn@dailynews.net.