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RE OSBT meeting on Prairie Dogs, Wednesday July 12 6-9 PM.From:elizabeth@elizabethblackart.com To:"marianne" Cc:OSBT-WebSubject:RE: OSBT meeting on Prairie Dogs, Wednesday July 12 6-9 PM.Date:Tuesday, July 11, 2023 2:34:06 PM Attachments:image002.pngimage001.png External Sender Hi Marianne, previous email inserted below. If we want to write letters at this point do we send to the same (OSMP) or to council? Send emails to OSBT-Web@bouldercolorado.gov not to council. Can they be short and just about one point? Yes. I was going to rally some people and give each person just one issue about the prairie dogs to address.....or would it be better to all be in one?It is best if everyone says something different and speaks from their heart and their own experience. Otherwise, the Board just tunes them out. The City of Boulder’s Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) will hold a public hearing and consider staff’s proposal for changes in OSMP’s prairie dog management on July 12th, 2023, at a virtual meeting starting at 6PM. The prairie dog portion of the meeting will start around 8PM. More information on how to sign up to listen or to speak at the public hearing is at https://bouldercolorado.gov/events/open-space-board-trustees-meeting-19 Please email OSBT by Wednesday at OSBT-Web@bouldercolorado.gov . Tell them what you think about staff’s proposed changes. There are some very good things and some not-very-good things in the proposal. (See Staff’s Proposal below.) If prairie dogs have been removed from OSMP property near you, please tell OSBT how that has worked out for you. If you have seen OSMP properties improve once prairie dogs are removed, or degrade without prairie dog management, tell them about that. Share your photos or videos. If you do not like parts of staff’s proposal, let OSBT know that too. Speak from your heart, your own experience, and tell your own story. That has the most impact. There are 3 brand new members of OSBT who know nothing about agriculture, water rights or prairie dogs. They must be educated, so it is important that you all contact them by Wednesday. (I know, major bummer, here we go again!) Staff’s Proposal: The pretty-good-sort-of 1. Expand the prairie dog (PD) lethal control program to include ALL irrigable agricultural OSMP properties designated “Transition” or “Removal”, not just properties in the North Project Area. 2. Buy 2 full-size PERC machine, 2 portable PERC machines, and hire a 2–3-person crew to bring lethal control and barrier maintenance in-house, saving $50,000 (instead of using private contractors). 3. Stop relocations to the Southern Grasslands, if they remain over 10% occupation. (Current occupation levels: 10%-Southern, 66%-Northern and 67%-Eastern Grasslands). 4. Instead, relocate PDs to OSMP’s Prairie Dog Conservation Areas, the Pueblo Chemical Depot or live trap and donate to raptor and ferret recovery. 5. Modify the City of Boulder’s burrow disturbance ordinance to allow agricultural disturbance activities that result in impacts no deeper than six inches (or 12 inches with notification) system-wide on irrigable lands. 6. Improve irrigation infrastructure on properties prior to PD removal. 7. Continue experimenting with co-existence methods such as burrow flattening, key-line plowing, and cover crop mixes. Staff’s Proposal: The not-so-good 8. Remove PDs ONLY from the irrigable portions of OSMP properties. PDs will remain on the dryland parts of properties. (We were afraid of this, and staff has confirmed it.) OSMP will build barriers to keep prairie dogs out of the parts of their land they have cleared. They will NOT build barriers to keep their PDs off neighbor’s lands. The last 3 columns of the category tables below include 1) the total acreage of PDs on a property at the end of 2022, 2) the acreage of PDs that OSMP is proposing to remove from just the irrigable portion of the property, and 3) the acres of PDs which will remain on the dryland portions of the property. If ALL the irrigable portions of ALL the properties are cleared of PDs, a total of 671 acres of PDs will remain on the dryland portions of 20 of these properties. This is a really hard one to fight, since staff was very careful back in 2020 to say “irrigable lands” and NOT “irrigable properties”, in all their written material. We assumed that LAND meant the entire PROPERTY, and you know what they say about Ass-u-me. Fighting this one means going back to Council for another ugly major uproar to win approval for lethal control on un-irrigated ag lands. There is no saying how this new unpredictable PC Boulder City Council will swing, but apparently, they have no wish to deal with prairie dogs. 9. The barrier cost-sharing program has hit another roadblock and is still non-existent 3 years in. The Prairie Dog Working Group inserted language into their Council approved plan several years ago saying that a barrier cost-sharing program must be “criteria-based and competitive”. Staff can’t figure out what that means or how to implement it. 10. Categorize PD infested agricultural properties as “A”, “B”, “C” or “D” properties, to rank how easy or difficult it will be to remove PDs and restore the land to agricultural use. See chart below for specific properties and their designations. Map attached to this email will help you locate named properties that are near you. Properties where PDs have been or will be removed between 2019 and 2023 are not included in staff’s categories. a. Category A: Easy to remove and restore. All outside Northern Project Areab. Category B: Harder and more expensive to restore. Restoration has more implications for habitat fragmentation and other wildlife.c. Category C: Challenging and very expensive to restore. “May be best managed through co-existence with prairie dogs.”d. Category D: Difficult or impossible to restore. “Will not have prairie dogs removed unless situations change significantly in the future.” (Plague?)11. Staff has backpedaled some on categorizing properties in their current agenda packet because of all the uproar it caused. They have not put the categories into the current agenda packet. You can only find them in the June agenda packet to OSBT https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=181900&dbid=0&repo=LF8PROD2. However, the categories remain, and their definitions remain unchanged, according to our conversation with staff yesterday. Staff asserts that the categories are descriptive, not prescriptive, that properties can change categories as conditions change, and that staff will remove PD’s from multiplecategories each year. However, they have just said this verbally. It is not written anywhere in their packets to OSBT. Staff says that they cannot put it in writing at this point.12. Change designations for properties where conditions have shifted in a permanent way. This means that agricultural “Transition and Removal” properties neighboring you could be reclassified as “Prairie Dog Conservation Areas”. Prairie Dog Conservation Areas can be receiving sites for more relocated PDs, and will have PDs on them in perpetuity. A couple OSBT members asked Paula and me to produce a short list of “ASKS” that we would like OSBT to focus on. Here are our “ASKS”, FYI. Please do NOT copy and paste them into your own email. Instead, use your own words and use them to focus your own ideas. You may want something completely different.1. Make a firm commitment that between 50% and 65% of prairie-dog-removal acreage will be in the Northern Project Area each year going forward.2. Increase lethal control to 200 acres/year, which Council has already approved.3. Improve neighbor relations by:b. Implementing a barrier cost-sharing program immediately.c. Effectively manage weeds and control erosion on OSMP agricultural propertiesd. Change staff attitudes from ignoring neighbors to collaborating with neighbors.2. Make NO changes in designations of properties. It is much too soon.3. Restore irrigation to match or improve on what was there when the property was purchased. Rent, lease, buy, exchange or move water rights and upgrade water systems for “water short” properties in the North Project Area. Here are the properties, their categories, and more information we have gathered about each property. Use the attached map to find properties near you. When you enlarge the map, the property names will show up. (I know, this email is way too long!) To read the OSBT June packet, including category definitions and more: https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=181900&dbid=0&repo=LF8PROD2 Starts on page 45. To read the OSBT July packet: https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=182117&dbid=0&repo=LF8PROD2 Starts on page 30 That’s way more than enough for now. PLEASE get an email in to OSBT by Wednesday sharing your opinion. OSBT-Web@bouldercolorado.gov Your voice is very important! 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. From: marianne <marianne@reallifeportraits.com> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2023 8:05 PM To: elizabeth <elizabeth@elizabethblackart.com> Subject: Re: OSBT meeting on Prairie Dogs, Wednesday July 12 6-9 PM. Hi Elizabeth, You are so great at getting all this out I hate to bother you for anything....I got lost and overwhelmed while looking for the prairie dog proposals...Did you post a summary in an earlier email or was that someone else? If we want to write letters at this point do we send to the same (OSMP) or to council? Can they be short and just about one point? I was going to rally some people and give each person just one issue about the prairie dogs to address.....or would it be better to all be in one? Thank you so much for all you do!!! Marianne Marianne MartinREAL LIFE PORTRAITSwww.reallifeportraits.com303 589 7337 ---- On Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:09:43 -0600 <elizabeth@elizabethblackart.com> wrote --- Hi Everyone, 1. Please send your emails about Staff’s proposed changes to City of Boulder OSMP prairie dog policy to OSBT by Wednesday at OSBT-Web@bouldercolorado.gov. To read the proposed changes, go to: https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=181900&dbid=0&repo=LF8PROD2 (June packet); or https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=182117&dbid=0&repo=LF8PROD2 (July packet). 2. To join and watch the OSBT virtual meeting on Wednesday July 12th, 6-9PM, go to this link: https://bouldercolorado.gov/events/open-space-board-trustees-meeting-19 and hit the text saying Join online meeting; That will take you to a Zoom log in page at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85329618800#success . Follow instructions from there. 3. You can also join on your phone by calling: 1-719-359-4580; Webinar ID: 853 2961 8800 4. Prairie dogs are the last public hearing on the agenda, and the schedule estimates our item starting around 8PM, give or take a few minutes. 5. If you would like to speak to OSBT, you must sign up to speak, either before 5PM on Wednesday, or during the meeting. Sign up at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/071223-osbt-public-comment-for-prairie-dog-management-tickets-675310139807?aff=oddtdtcreator. Make sure that you have signed up for the right public hearing as there are 3 of them this evening! Note that the sign-up page is run by EventBrite, and it just gets you signed up to speak. It does NOT provide a link to get into the meeting or to speak. To get into the meeting and to speak when it is your turn, you must click Join online meeting on the OSBT meeting agenda page at https://bouldercolorado.gov/events/open-space-board-trustees-meeting-19. That will take you to a Zoom log in page at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85329618800#success . Follow instructions from there. 6. When the moderator opens the public hearing and invites people to speak, she calls their name. If she can identify you, she then will unmute you. Once you are assured that folks can hear you, you will have exactly 3 minutes to speak. That’s about one page of 16point type, depending on how fast you talk. The board will not be able to see you, and you cannot share photos. If you have photos that you want to show the Board, it is best to email them ahead of time. 7. The virtual public hearing system the City uses is studgy and several people had problems with it at the last meeting. Here’s a couple tricks that might help: a. Make sure you are unmuted on your end when it is your turn to speak. The unmute button is usually in the lower left corner of the screen, in line with the toolbar along the bottom of the Zoom page. It looks like this: If there is a red diagonal line through the microphone icon, click it to unmute yourself. b. Sometimes you may only be identifiable as a phone number. This may be the case if you are calling in to the meeting on your phone. To fix this, get into your phone settings ahead of time and set up a public profile for yourself with your name. Then the moderator will be able to identify you more easily. c. If you have problems connecting with your phone, try using your computer if it is available. Alternatively try calling back on your phone and hope for a better connection. Thanks very much for your engagement in this matter. All of us working together have been able to make some significant changes in the City of Boulder’s prairie dog policy. Please make sure that OSBT hears your voice! 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.