Western Governors Sound The Alarm On Feral Cats And Other Pests (Denver: motel, home)

[Colorado Rambler]

From Colorado Public Radio:Western Governors Sound The Alarm On Feral Cats And Other Pests | CPR

Weeds, feral cats, insects and other pests are invading the U.S. West, and state governors released a list of the worst offenders Thursday in hopes of helping people recognize and eradicate the invaders before they spread.
The Western Governors' Association cataloged the top 50 invasive species in their region, saying the pests have already caused billions of dollars in damage to agriculture and infrastructure.

"Western governors have said the spread of invasive species is one of the greatest risks to the Western environment," said Bill Whitacre, the association's policy adviser for public lands and agriculture.

Some of the species on the governors' list have been in the headlines before, including water-gulping salt cedar trees and quagga mussels. Others may be surprises, such as feral cats.

"They have huge impacts to native bird species," Whitacre said.

They're not pets on the loose, he said, but descendants in a long line of feral cats that have learned to live on their own.

As a rural Coloradan I can tell you from personal observation that invasive species have become prevalent in sometimes amazing numbers. Cheat grass for example is a real problem and while prairie dogs are a native species, they have also become an invasive one due to a radically altered natural environment. I have become accustomed to the sound of daily rounds of gunfire as my ranching and farming neighbors attempt to keep these pests at bay. My dog has become a prairie dog hunter par excellence himself. The other day he barfed up a whole prairie dog on my living room carpet. Oh, YUCK!

I do want to speak out on the behalf of the feral cats, however. It's true that free ranging cats can have a major negative impact on various species of birds. Our native Coloradan birds didn't evolve to take on cats from Texas and California.

There is a silver lining because the ferals also help keep the rodent population at bay and we have zillions of plague carrying rodents everywhere from Denver to Durango. I'm glad the ferals kill the mice and packrats off to be honest. I do hate the fact that cats are making inroads on the numbers of songbirds. I don't think it will be very easy to get rid of feral cats until cat owners become responsible enough to get Kitty spayed or neutered. Until then, birds and rodents better keep a sharp eye out because Kitty Claws is coming to town!

[evening sun]

If more people participated in the trap neuter release (TNR) on the feral cats, it would make a big difference. I did it for a few years & we fixed so many females, the mind boggles at how many kittens would have been born, if we had not spayed the females.

[Mike from back east]

If the Interior Dept has a hand in this their hands are being tied by $1.4B in budget cuts. We can't expect any help from them.... and some BLM programs are being cut back too.

It's becoming a YOYO "paradise" out there.... You're On Your Own

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by evening sun

If more people participated in the trap neuter release (TNR) on the feral cats, it would make a big difference. I did it for a few years & we fixed so many females, the mind boggles at how many kittens would have been born, if we had not spayed the females.

Thank you for bringing this up. Residents of Montezuma County are blessed to have some concerned souls who are tackling the feral cat problem through TNR in Cortez and Mancos. I had them out here myself. Unfortunately the landscape is just too vast and the ferals are so clever that they just up and fled before they could be trapped. We're going to try again come summer. Meanwhile, both my cats are spayed and my feral rescue kitten has an appointment with the vet next week!

[KSinmyrearviewmirror]

Prairie dogs, eh?

Reviled in ranching country. My wife recently retired from the USF&WS. She participated in the effort to return the black-footed ferret to Kansas. They were raised in Colorado & released on one rancher's prairie dog towns. That made him popular (NOT). The county spread poison on his ranch, illegally, as they didn't have the permits to use that poison.

When the USF&WS held an anniversary ceremony on the success of the restoration, the only local "event center" in Oakley suddenly pulled the plug on their facility; so it was relocated to the East in a much larger city (Hays). The USF&WS would have surveys twice a year, filling the motel rooms & restaurant with business for over a week. Purchasing supplies & gas. In the scope of tourism $ in Oakley, likely not a small impact.

Ranchers have lived with the dread of prairie dogs for several generations. Few are aware of "More recent studies suggest Prairie dog colonies can have a positive impact on grazing lands." Or would admit "The primary impact on grazing perrnittees at present is drought, not competition for forage with prairie dogs." I'd have no problem with the USDA, BLM, or state, paying ranchers for the rare head with a broken leg due to prairie dog holes.

98% of Kansas is private lands, making us 49th in per capita public lands (KS lost pop., so Rhode Island moved into 50th place in the last couple of years).

When the Ogallala aquifer is completely drained, those W KS towns will dry up & blow away. Oakley will come to its senses & wish the black-footed ferret watchers would spend more $; and will be offering night-vision goggles for tourists' enjoyment of a dark night on the shortgrass prairie.

Don't get me started on cats. My next door nayboor, Prof. Udder Nonsense, is head of the KSU dairy dept., & raised "barn cats" at home for over a decade.