The Coconino sun., 1925-08-14
THREE MILLION PRAIRIE
DOGS KILLED BY BUREAU

In a comprehensive report made by
d. A. Gilchrist, assistant biologist and
leader of rodent control for Arizona,
some very interesting facts concern
ing the destfuctiveness of rodents are
given, He says:
To date over million acres have
been cleared of the prairie dog pest,
leaving about five million acres as
yet untreated.
There are 1915 farmers and stock
men in the state. Of this number we
have the names and addresses of over
5000 who have been assisted in rodent
control work during the past six
years.
The average taxpayer of the state
contributes about .09 year towards
rodent control through state and fed
eral taxes.
During the past fiscal year the fol
lowing has been accomplished in the
way OF controlling all rodent pests in
Guiding prairie dogs, squirrels, go
piers, rats and rabbits:
1. Three thousand, six hundred and
sixty citizens cooperated
2. Five hundred and thirty-one
thousand, five hundred and fifty-nine
acres of infestation were treated.
3. Sixty-four thousand, three hun-
dred and fifty pounds of poisoned bait
and nine hundred and thirty-seven
pounds Of poisoned gas were used.
A. Over three million rodents were
killed.
5. According to signed statements
from the cooperators S439 ,140 worth
of farm crops, fruit trees and range
grasses were saved as direct result
of exterminating the rodents.
g. This was accomplished at a cost
of $17,0 900 to the federal government,
5000 to the State of Arizona and
over $4,000 to the citizens of this
state.
Z. In other words total of SIT 900
was invested last year in rodent con-
troll and it returned $439,1
Under the separate headings of
prairie dogs and ground squirrels;
pocket gophers; jackrabbits and cot
tontails; cotton rats; kangaroo rats;
house rats and mice, the following has
been accomplished during the past
fiscal year:
Prairie Dogs and Ground Squirrels
A total of 342, 1893 acres of prairie
dog and ground squirrel infestation
was treated, Of which 146,908 acres
were federal lands and 1876, 785 acres
were state and private lands.
A total of 4S,06S pounds of poisoned
grain was used.
1t is estimated that 100000 prairie
dogs and 3400 ground squirrels were
killed.
Some idea of the density of infesta-
tion may be gained when you stop to
consider that Il. M Mercer picked up
and counted 225 dead prairie dogs
from a 15-acre grain field near Flag
staff.
The major federal aid projects
treated were as follows:
Coconino national forest, 81 800
acres; Sitgreaves national forest, 3d.
538 acres; Tusayan. national forest,
1920 acres; Prescott national forest,
5000 acres; Apache national forest,
1850 acres.
With the exception of the Coconino |
national forest all the forests were |
treated at tie expense of the biologi
cal survey.
On the Coconino forest, effective /
April 1, 1925, new cooperative un-
dertaking was started whereby the T.
S. forest service set aside $1,000 of the |
grazing fees, which was matched by a
like sum from the L. S. biological sur
vey and used to operate an elght-man
field party. This party has covered
81 800 acres on the forest to date and
will have placed poisoned grain at
every active prairie dog hole on the
forest before the close of the season, |
which ends on the first of October. II
this cooperation can be extended to all |
OF the forests the forest service will |
be able to reclaim all infested acres
and deliver the full amount of forage
growing thereon to the livestock in |
stead Of the prairie dogs.
Under present conditions the prairie
dogs are taking 81 per cent of the
grass ON the infested areas, only leay
ing II per cent for the livestock. This |
has been conclusively proven by
fenced experiments established over a |
period of five years at the Sweetwood |
ranch, ) miles north of Williams, Ari- |
zona. Stockmen, bankers and all in
terested parties are invited to visit |
these experimental plots at any time |
and they can then draw their own |
conclusions.
Too much cannot be said as to the |
tremendous problem which the peo-
pie of Arizona, the state and federal |
governments are now facing in the
matter of finding some way Of ade-
quately financing the clearing of over
100000 acres of prairie dog infes- |
tation in northern Arizona. At the |
present time the rodents are consum-
ing over 8,000,000 tons of forage an
nually ON this area which if only
valued at 30 cents ton would run |
into an annual loss of $4,000,000.
This infested area Of 5000, 900 areas
is now carrying 152,426 sheep and |
58, ,594 head of cattle according to the |
assessors records.
As heretofore stated it has been |
proven by actual tests that the prairie !
dogs are destroying 81 per cent of the
forage on this area. Using, however,
the very conservative estimate of only /
80 per cent, it naturally follows that
if you would exterminate the prairie |
dogs you would double the amount of
forage available and could therefore |