The Prairie Dog Advisory Board met February 26th, at the Box Butte County Courthouse, in the county commissioner’s room at 4:00 PM for the purpose of reviewing the active prairie dog forced control that is taking place in Box Butte County. Members present were Mike Johnson, chairman, Jim Furman, Lynn Placek, and Shawn Hunter. Tim Sherlock was not present. The County Attorney was also present. The active complaint list was reviewed. The active forced control was decided to be monitored for a while longer, as we are getting to the end of the season where legal prairie dog bait can be distributed to the active prairie dog holes. The meeting was adjourned at 4:30.
Active complaints are still being accepted by the board for review, knowing that the season for control, voluntary or forced will soon pass. It is legal to poison from October 1 of each year, until March 15, of the following year. While it is important to plan for the fall at this time, the board will continue to meet every 4th Wednesday of the month unless it is determined by the chairman that there is no business to transact, no planning is necessary, nor complaints to be acted upon at that time.
The committee would like to hold another community educational session this summer to make county residents aware of the problems that prairie dogs have caused for all of our agricultural neighbors. Knowing the life cycle of prairie dogs and how they destroy the landscape will allow us to do a better job of keeping our pastures and fields viable for livestock and crops use for all of our livelihoods as it pertains to our agricultural community.
Again, everyone is welcome at any and all of the monthly meetings. The approach the board and the community constituents have taken this past year is a start to having a successful reduction in the Box Butte County prairie dog population. We know that the journey to reduce the number of prairie dogs in our county is a must to keep our Nebraska landscape beautiful and productive.
There will not be a March meeting this month due to a lack of board member available to hold an open meeting. The next board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday April 23, at 4:00 PM, and will be published in the Alliance Times Herald.