WTPD Conservation Assessment - Endangered Species & Wetlands ...

Colorado
Historic Information
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (1911) provided the following description of
white-tailed prairie dog occupied range and economic concerns of this species in Colorado:
“The white-tailed prairie dog replaces the Gunnison’s and black-tailed prairie dog on the
sage plains of northwestern Colorado, where it occupies much of the open country west
of the Park and Gore Range and north of the Lower Gunnison Valley. It occurs also in
North Park, but was not found in the Laramie Valley, east of the Medicine Bow Range,
nor does it range across the Rabbit Ear Mountains into Middle Park and Blue River
Valley. In the Snake River Valley it is found east to Honnold, and in White River Valley
it is common as far up as the mouth of the South Fork. Prairie dogs occur throughout the
Bear River Region, and follow this stream to its headwaters in Egeria Park, thence,
sparingly, south across the divide to McCoy and Grand River, and again across Piney
Divide to Wolcott, on Eagle River, and West in the Grand Valley to Gypsum. They do
not extend through the Grand Canyon above Glenwood, nor do they pass around it, and
they are absent from the Grand valley between Glenwood and Grand Junction. On the
desert areas between Grand Junction and the Utah boundary, prairie dogs are common,
doubtless coming in from the west, where the range is probably continuous around the
western end of the Bookcliffs in Utah. They range from Axial Basin south across the
lowest passes of the Danforth Hills to the White River Valley at Meeker, but apparently
do not cross the White River Plateau or its western extension, the Book Plateau, at any
point in the State.
Instead of extending northeast from Grand Junction in the narrow Grand Valley, C.
leucurus ranges to the southeast in the broad Gunnison and Uncompahgre Valleys, and
occurs over a wide area between the Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre Plateau. In the
Uncompahgre Valley it was noted south to a point on Dallas Creek, a few miles west of
Ridgeway. East of Montrose it was abundant along the railroad at Cedar Creek, and a
few were seen almost to the summit of Cerro Ridge, between Cedar Creek and Cimarron.
None were observed at Cimarron, and the divide between the Cimarron and
Uncompahgre Rivers appears to mark the eastern limit of the range in this region. The
species extends east along the North Fork of the Gunnison to Hotchkiss and Paonia, and
was abundant at the west base of the West Elk Mountains, between Hotchkiss and
Crawford. The majority observed in this section were on dry adobe flats, where the only
vegetation worthy of mention was the prostrate, scrubby, desert-growing Atriplex nuttallii
and a sparse Dondia in damp alkaline spots.
Wherever white-tailed prairie dogs live in the neighborhood of cultivated ground they are
very injurious to green crops. In the vicinity of Grand Junction the burrows are usually in
the dry banks of irrigating ditches, and the prairie dogs inflict considerable damage on the
adjacent truck farms by eating cabbages, cantaloupes, and other crops. They destroy
considerable areas of range grasses and feed extensively in alfalfa fields and hay
meadows in the river valleys throughout their range.”
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