In Boulder County, being a prairie dog is quite a privilege. The county open space that can be used for prairie dogs is filled. No vacancy. The down side of this is the “dogs” moving onto private property where they may or may not be welcome and an exponential rise in road kill.
Almost daily I drive a square loop that takes me from the mouth of Left Hand Canyon, to Nelson road into Longmont in the morning. In the afternoon I take the diagonal highway to Boulder, then North Broadway and Hwy 36 back to Left Hand Canyon. I encounter prairie dog road kill at the following points:
1. Corner of Hwy 36 and Nelson Road, going East on Nelson.
2. On Nelson Rd just West of the intersection of N. 75th avenue and Nelson Road
3. West side of the Diagonal Hwy, heading towards Boulder just past IBM
4. Going North on Hwy 36 leaving Boulder.
This doesn’t include the road kill that can be found on the East side of Hwy 36 on Plateau Rd, Neva Rd and N. 39th street. Unfortunately, our County leaders are in the hands of the loud environmentalist minority and don’t have the courage to take the required action to control the growing and expanding prairie dog population. However, nature may be taking the matter into her own hands with the recnt discovery of Bubonic Plague in Lyons. It’s unfortunate it came down to this and hopefully this outbreak can be contained. Even if it is contained, Boulder County needs to take immediate and aggressive action to control the prairie dog population.
