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5 Asks regarding OSMP's prairie dog management proposalFrom:elizabeth@elizabethblackart.com To:Dave Kuntz; Jon Carroll; Michelle Estrella; Brady Robinson; OSBT-Web Subject:5 "Asks" regarding OSMP"s prairie dog management proposal Date:Friday, July 7, 2023 12:45:54 PM External Sender Hello OSBT, Brady and Dave asked our group to come up with a short list of “Asks”, regarding staff’s proposals for changing prairie dog management (Agenda Item VI at your July 12 OSBT meeting). There are many great things in staff’s proposal, including expanding the geographical scope of lethal control to all irrigated ag properties system-wide, bringing PERC in-house, changing the burrow disturbance ordinance to a 6-12 inch depth system-wide, and ending relocations to the Southern Grasslands. However, your neighbors and constituents have several large concerns about the categorizations and redesignations of properties, neighbor relations, irrigation, and the slow pace of progress overall, given rapid colony population increases. Neighbors are concerned that staff is abandoning the Northern Project Area. In staff’s category list, properties inside the Northern Project Area comprise 50% of the total acreage of listed properties, and 65% of the acres of irrigable lands occupied by prairie dogs. Accordingly, we ask OSMP to: Make a firm commitment that between 50% and 65% of their prairie-dog-removal acreagewill be in the Northern Project Area each year going forward. Neighbors are concerned by OSMP’s slow pace of prairie dog removals – currently only 92-124 acres of lethal control/year. We want all the lands in the North Project Area cleared within 5 years. OSMP has cleared 346 acres of prairie dogs from 2020-2022: 216 acres with lethal control and 132 acres with relocations. However, the acreage of prairie-dog-occupied irrigable lands has decreased by only 157 acres from 2020-2022 because of rapid prairie dog population growth. Only 45% of OSMP’s removals decrease the number of occupied irrigated acres; 55% of OSMP’s removals have only matched the population growth on irrigable acres. Council has approved up to 200 acres of lethal control/year and 40 acres of relocations/year on irrigable lands. A faster removal rate results in fewer prairie dogs killed in the long run, less degraded land, and the ability to finish the job in 5 years. The proposed PERC crew and machinery should be able to handle 200 acres of lethal control per year. Accordingly, we ask OSMP to: Increase lethal control to 200 acres/year. Neighbors are extremely concerned that Transition and Removal properties may be redesignated as Multiple Object Areas or Prairie Dog Conservation Areas. Redesignating a property means that it may have uncontrolled prairie dogs on it forever, that it could become a receiving site for even more relocated prairie dogs, and that the tools that staff has to manage those prairie dogs are limited to non-existent. A redesignation will have lasting, on-going financial impacts and property damage for neighboring landowners. Accordingly, we ask OSMP to: Make NO changes in designations of properties. It is much too soon. Irrigating is hard! Farmers and ranchers understand that well. We understand that it is really hard for OSMP to accomplish what the previous farmers and ranchers on their lands were able to do. But we do not agree that these lands are not irrigable just because irrigation is hard. Accordingly, we ask OSMP to: Restore irrigation to match or improve on what was there when the property waspurchased. Rent, lease, buy, exchange or move water rights and upgrade water systems for“water short” properties in the Northern Project Area. Neighbor relations remain very poor with landowners bordering OSMP’s agricultural lands with prairie dogs. OSMP’s reputation in the County is not good. Accordingly, we ask OSMP to: Improve neighbor relations with the following actions: 1. Implement a barrier cost-sharing program immediately. 2. Effectively manage weeds and control erosion on OSMP agricultural properties 3. Change staff attitudes to one of collaboration with neighbors. We hope that you all will push staff to incorporate our asks into their management proposal. We believe it will make it a much better proposal and will go a long way in improving neighbor relations and the condition of OSMP’s agricultural lands.. Thank you, Elizabeth Black Elizabeth Black 303-449-7532h 720-839-5576c Elizabeth@ElizabethBlackArt.com 4340 N 13th St Boulder CO 80304 To Unsubcribe, click on Elizabeth@ElizabethBlackArt.com and tell me to remove you.