By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

RUSSELL SPRINGS -- Logan County's vow to poison a thousand acres of land where the black-footed ferret roams nearly forced the hand of the federal government.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel were en route to Logan County on Wednesday to begin the task of finding, trapping and relocating ferrets from land south of Russell Springs.

As it turned out, said Wichita attorney Randy Rathbun, Logan County -- through attorney Jim McVay, Great Bend -- agreed to delay poisoning until it can get additional guidance on a restraining order issued early last year by Shawnee County District Judge Charles Andrews.

The agreement was reached Wednesday in an emergency hearing sought by Rathbun. Logan County had indicated it would start poisoning some of the land as early as Monday but will wait until after Andrews returns from vacation and is able to determine if the restraining order remains in place.

"It's basically going to preserve the status quo," Rathbun said this morning.

That means Logan County can poison only barriers surrounding the nearly 10,000-acre ranch owned by Larry and Bette Haverfield and Gordon Barnhardt, Rathbun said.

Because an employee of the wildlife services division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is already doing that, Rathbun doubts there will be any need to do so.

After the hearing, Rathbun contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Manhattan, hoping to stop the process that had been set in motion. While he wasn't sure if the process was stopped, Rathbun said he was assuming so.

FWS biologist Dan Mulhearn was en route to Logan County on Wednesday to start moving the ferrets from land owned by Barnhardt.

Mulhearn had planned to begin the task of locating the ferrets and then moving them elsewhere on the ranch.

He didn't like it much, however.

"It's a pain," he said as he prepared to head to Logan County. "I don't like doing this at all."

But the threat of poisoning was forcing the hand of the agency.

"Nobody likes it much," he said, "least of all me. But that's what we've got to do."

The FWS decision to remove the ferrets rather than fight the push to poison drew criticism.

"It just seems like they're pretty easy," Larry Haverfield said of FWS.

"It would be nice to get some support somewhere. We aren't getting what we need from any government agency, the county, the state or the federal government. We're not getting the least bit of support from any of them."

Haverfield and Barnhardt on Friday met with officials from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and representatives of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. They both said the response was chilly at best.

Barnhardt was sharply critical of both state and federal wildlife agencies.

"They're not intersted in defending this project," he said of FWS. "This whole thing was their idea. It's wasn't our idea. They came to Larry Haverfield and me."

Barnhardt also said he thinks Logan County's insistence in poisoning prairie dogs is the type of move that will ensure black-tailed prairie dogs land on the endangered species list.

As well, he said the states where prairie dogs exist have done little.

"Among the states doing the least, you'd have to rank Kansas right up there as No. 1," Barnhardt said. "And they don't intend to."

KDWP, he said, "don't care about wildlife. It's all about money."

The meeting, Barnhardt said, was a waste of time.

"You might as well have gone out in Ellis County and talked to a bunch of fenceposts," he said. "These are people who are supposed to be taking care of wildlife."

The meeting with KDWP was put together in anticipation of the push to start poisoning prairie dogs.

In the meantime, Haverfield was relieved the trapping had been at least delayed.

"It was good news it got put off," he said this morning.

Haverfield said he was not aware of anyone out spotlighting on the targeted land overnight.

Ferrets had been released on that specific parcel of land earlier this fall, in addition to initial releases made in December 2007. In spotlight surveys last fall, biologists found ferrets that had been born earlier in the spring.

Wednesday's action still doesn't resolve the controversy over prairie dogs and the reintroduction of ferrets. Instead, it just delays everything.

Currently, land surrounding the Haverfield-Barnhardt complex is being treated for prairie dogs. The treatments are being made through research programs paid for by the federal wildlife agency to Kansas State University. FWS also contributed money to pay to hire the USDA employee who has been treating land.

The treatments are being made at no cost to neighboring landowners.