If it's not enforceable, then it's worthless,' de Raismes said. Anyone wishing to kill prairie dogs would be smart to do so en masse, in advance of the city's prairie dog ordinance. He said it would be impossible to have an ordinance that made relocation a 'last resort' solution unless someone defined what 'last resort' means. I know a court will have a real hard time with me trying to enforce that provision in the face of state law which permits the poisoning of that prairie dog,' de Raismes said. Another element to Poinsatte's amendment would have set an emergency exemption for reservoir dams, so that prairie dogs could be relocated from dams but only with city manager approval.
Prairie dogs are among a dam operator's worst foes.
They burrow through dams, creating leaks that can threaten the structures entirely. When a dam operator finds a prairie dog burrow, he gets out the poison. The Boulder Reservoir dam, de Raismes told Poinsatte, doesn't belong to the city. Instead, it belongs to the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. The dam and surrounding property, where prairie dogs live, are on loan to the city due only to the dam owner's generosity.