Thankfully the good people at Wall Drug have nearly saturated the roadside with wooden effigies, some of the worst advertising I have ever seen, all built upon the gimmick of free water. If anyone ever says to you, 'but we are so close, we have to stop at Wall Drug,' you don't have to. You will not be missing much if your wagon just keeps to the trail, and arguably you will be better off. The purpose of our trip to Wall was to look at grassland ecology, prairie dog restoration, and ferret reintroduction. Along with looking at these characteristics of prairie communities, we also wanted to look at how these different aspects are intertwined to create the community that they live together and survive in.
Dog towns are a concentrated group of prairie dog burrows.
In the National Grasslands, the government manages for multiple uses. Though most private ranchers complain about prairie dogs, the National Grasslands have found little trouble in managing for both prairie dogs and cattle. The most difficult task in fact is managing people and their conflicting desires. Educating ranchers in the value of biological diversity is needed to ease these conflicts. A very simple and obvious interaction of prairie dogs is their role in the food chain.