• Print
  • Share

Home > Programs and Policy > Wildlife Conservation > Imperiled Species > Black-footed Ferret

Black-footed Ferret Management and Policy

Defenders of Wildlife is:

  • working to end the destruction of black-footed ferret habitat on our public lands;
  • helping wildlife-friendly ranchers in Kansas protect prairie dog colonies and newly-reintroduced black-footed ferrets from county commissioners bent on their destruction.

Ending the destruction of black-footed ferret habitat on public lands

Conata Basin is a 73,000 acre area within the 580,000 acre Buffalo Gap National Grassland in southwestern South Dakota. Approximately 30,000 acres of this area are occupied by prairie dog colonies, making this the largest prairie dog complex and therefore the best black-footed ferret habitat on public land in the entire Great Plains. About 300 ferrets – one third of the world’s ferret population – call this area home.

But now Conata Basin is under attack. The U.S. Forest Service is planning to destroy up to 2/3 of the prairie dogs in Conata Basin beginning in fall 2007. This would significantly reduce the number of ferrets that could survive here and would also impact the entire ferret recovery effort because some of wild-born ferrets are trapped from Conata Basin are used to populate other sites.

Defenders of Wildlife is working to protect Conata Basin from this planned destruction.

Helping wildlife-friendly ranchers in Kansas protect prairie dog colonies and newly-reintroduced black-footed ferrets from county commissioners bent on their destruction

County commissioners want to spread poison across 10,000 acres of private property in Logan County, Kansas against the will of landowners, as part of a prairie dog eradication program authorized by a century-old state law. The wildlife-friendly ranchers who own this land have been fighting against the county’s plans since 2006, and the fight continues. The landowners refuse to eradicate all their prairie dogs because of the importance of prairie dogs to a healthy prairie ecosystem. In 2007 and 2008 the ranchers won a court battle and also worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce black-footed ferrets to their property! But the Logan County Commissioners continue to fight this wildlife success story in an effort to overturn the legal victories and kill all the prairie dogs. Defenders of Wildlife continues to help defend these landowners.

Defenders of Wildlife comments

Federal actions