Will Prairie Dogs Decide the Senate?

Will prairie dogs decide the leadership of the U.S. Senate? That's the way things are shaping up as Republican John Thune of South Dakota attempts to paint Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) as "soft on prairie dogs."

The question is not between protection and extermination; it's about who has the most agressive plan to gas and poison the little marmots which once existed in colonies of hundreds of millions across the Western United States.

Efforts to protect the prairie dog in order to a provide food source for the endangered black-footed ferret were so successful in South Dakota that ranchers grazing their land on federal property are now complaining about the competition. Across the American West, there are now 18 million praire dogs -- a small fragment of what once existed, but with some notable population densities in parts of South Dakota.

Call me soft on marmots (the marmots themselves, it should be said, have never made that claim), but I think prairie dogs should be allowed to thrive. and that cattle grazing on Federal Land should be curtailed. The great native eco-culture of the West has always included prairie dogs and should be made whole; that's what it is to be a steward to the land. >> Click here to read page one Washington Post article on the controversy.