Prairie dogs: Friend or foe
Burrowing critters infest area but aerate soil

Fox Run Golf Course worker Phil Sandoval turns away as a blast from a prairie dog hole kicks up dirt and dust. Sandoval used a device called "The Rodenator" that pumps propane and oxygen into the holes dug by the animals to send them to their burrowed deathbeds. Prairie dogs at the golf course have been a problem for some time for the grounds crew. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — On any given day, like many areas of the city, the Hillcrest Cemetery is overrun with prairie dogs. The critters are so active that the ground beneath gravestones has caved in, leaving them sunk into the ground at the older, unattended graves. It’s likely the animals are entering some of the caskets that have deteriorated with time.

For the most part, the city has been unwilling to deal with the problem. Nick Bubany, whose parents are buried at the cemetery, said he has complained extensively, only to have the city ignore his repeated requests.

The situation is quite different on the golf course, where the city actively tries to control the burrowing creatures. The primary method used is a device called a Rodenator. The device pumps a mixture of oxygen and propane into the burrow and ignites, causing an underground explosion.

According to a Web site by Meyer Industries, which makes the Rodenator, the device creates an “underground shock wave that eliminates the animal within the tunnel and collapses the tunnel system of some burrowing species.”

The Web site also says that the process is very quick.

But to wildlife conservationists who specialize in prairie dogs, the device is a cruel and barbaric method of controlling the animals. According to Yvonne Boudreaux of Prairie Dog Pals, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving prairie dogs and their habitat, the nature of their burrows suggests that not all of them die from the concussion and some are being burned.

“Their burrows are very complex,” says Boudreaux.
The burrows, she says, contain chambers for sleeping, nursing, and listening for threats. In these spaces, the animals can survive the blast, where they are buried injured but alive.

“Most of them do die instantly, but not all,” she says. “You can’t reach all those chambers with a fireball.”

Prairie Dog Pals offers a relocation service. Volunteers pump the burrows full of biodegradable, nontoxic foam, from which the prairie dogs flee.

“They walk out into your hands,” she says.

They then relocate the animals to a staging area where they are allowed to relax from the stress of the move and given time to build up fat, which they need to build new burrows after they are moved to a final open space area.

Prairie Dog Pals also seeks to educate people on what Boudreaux says is a misunderstood animal. She says that the main reason they become so populous in areas like the cemetery is that they are territorial creatures that live many generations within the same burrow. In turn, they become boxed in as areas around them are developed and there they’ll are no natural predators to control the population.

And she say, their burrows, which can reach a depth of 15 feet, help penetrate the area’s impermeable clay soil. This prevents runoff and helps irrigate plants.

“They’re little landscape engineers,” she says.

Boudreaux says that Prairie Dog Pals is not a pest control organization. They are not subsidized and rely on donations and volunteers to do their work. But the work is for prairie dog conservation.

“Our focus is for the sake of the prairie dogs,” she says.
She also stresses that she doesn’t mean to disregard the sensitivity surrounding the animals overrunning a cemetery. She suggests that relocation would be all the more important in such a location.

“As a show of respect to the sacred ground, you think blowing up the burrows would be frowned upon,” she says.
Paula Martin, director of Prairie Ecosystems, which consults organizations on humane prairie dog management, says that the Rodenator doesn’t address their territorial nature. This means they’re just going to keep coming back.

“There are so many alternatives ... I wish they would talk to someone about management,” Martin says.

Boudreaux admits that relocation is a much more expensive solution to the problem. But she says that there are long-term benefits in rebuilding natural wildlife ecosystems. And Martin says that there are various grants and other funding opportunities to help with the costs.

Bourdreaux has contacted the city and hopes to begin discussions on pursuing a course of relocation for the animals.

“I hope to establish a dialogue,” she says.

So far, the group has not received a response. A voice mailbox of Ben Welch, executive director of the parks department, was full and no message could be left there. Another message line for him did not have voice mail. Meyer Industries did not return calls requesting comment on the Rodenator.