State struggles with prairie dog answer

By MIKE CORN
Hays Daily News

Dan Johnson, a Hays rancher and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, understands just how disruptive prairie dogs can be - at least when it comes to people.

Twice now, the prairie dog eradication law has been before his committee.

Dan Johnson Hays rancher and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee

The first time, almost four years ago, a bill was passed that would have softened the wording on the control of prairie dogs - an effort that Johnson thought was critical because the black-tailed prairie dog was at the time being considered for inclusion on the federal threatened species list.

" The idea was that if we could show the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that we were backing off, it would keep them off the endangered species list," Johnson said.

The Senate balked at the wording passed by the House and inserted its own wording that the federal wildlife agency said still suggested eradication was the desired goal.

" I don't want prairie dogs to be endangered, which means you can't do anything with your property without checking with Washington or Topeka or both."

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Earlier this year, another prairie dog control bill came before Johnson's committee and hearings were conducted. Then, the committee agreed that it would not be able to muster enough support to send it to the House so it languished there.

The experience has been troubling for Johnson.

" That was the most divisive, mean-spirited debate," Johnson said of the first bill. "There are those people who believe it just ruins your land, and I can see that. And there are people who say it is a species native to the land ... and I should get to have them on my property if I want them."

Johnson thinks control should be a local issue.

In his 10 years in the Legislature, Johnson said the prairie dog bill was the most difficult.

" I've done nothing as divisive and mean spirited as when I did the prairie dogs," he said.

As for himself, Johnson's ranch only once has had to deal with them, when drought conditions prevailed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

" The reason they were here is because the grass wouldn't grow," he said. "Once the grass started growing, we didn't do anything but they just left."