Little House on the Prairie Dog town: Prompt Post No. 5

Shrieks and squeaks and mounds of dirt surround me. Prairie dog town in the pasture, and small brown animals scurry underneath and beyond me. These small furry rodents dig up the sod, the roots, the prairie, and because they are a “nuisance” to the farmers and ranchers who want the land for their crops or their animals, the dogs are deemed unnecessary.
But what really makes an animal “necessary,” or –un? What can I do as an advocate if I'm not even sure where I stand?

Ever since the 70s, when the prairie dog was placed on the endangered species list, these mama ls have made large "comebacks," according to the University of Nebraska- Lincoln.
But for someone living in an area that has never seen a decline in these animals, it's hard to know the difference between a comeback and a threatened animal.

"The fact that prairie dogs live in colonies indicates they are highly social animals. The largest social unit is the colony or town. Towns are often divided into "wards" by topographical barriers such as roads, ridges or trees, and are generally five to 10 acres in size. Although prairie dogs in one ward may be able to see and hear animals of an adjacent ward, movement among wards is unusual. Wards are divided into several smaller prairie dog social units, called 'coteries'."- from the NE Game and Parks Commission.


I pause alongside the Kearns' fence-- they don't like people on their property or in their business, and even though they are relatives somewhere back in history, I'm not about to get shot at or razzled for watching prairie dogs on their property. The small animals run back and forth, scamper atop the mounded entrances to their burrows, and chatter, squeal and roughhouse with each other. I like thinking about the burrows and tunnels they have built underground-- I am reminded of walking along the interconnected streets in foreign cities. I think of Cartagena and Barcelona, cobbled streets shielded from the sky by balconies, arches and the vines and flowers that reach for the sky from them. Even in our differences-- people and prairie dogs, the Spaniards and the Anglos and U.S. Europeans-- as social being we are similar. I see these things, but I can't find a place in the argument for one side or the other.

On the one hand, I realize that prairie dogs make up the ecosystem where I come from. Owls, weasels, rabbits, other small mammals all use the burrows once the prairie dogs have left them. But on the other hand, I know how dangerous it is for livestock who are pastured in these fields.

I drive home, sliding across the muddy road, thinking about the small animals and their communities; my community. Our girls basketball team made it to state again for the third time in a row, and they blew up on the court, for the third time in a row. They are young, but have experience... I know that they get to the big city (Lincoln is huge to most people around here) and freak out, snapping under the pressure. The media, the full gyms, the competition.. I think they feel threatened by the outside forces. That's what life is like around here. The outside world is distant, we only know what is before us until we get away to see more of it. And anywhere you go, people are leery of the unknown, the unfamiliar. A small town, simple (I don't mean dumb, just.. simple) people; a challenging region: we are sheltered, to what I would say is our detriment. But I think we are also sometimes unaware of even that which surrounds us.

I think about the Crow Butte uranium mine to the west of us (about 1.25 hours from where I live). Even though this is something local, and therefore not "threatening" and unfamiliar, I wonder how many of my friends who work there really know, I mean KNOW of the hazards of their environment. My friend Ray went to work there for his family, a better life, more money, but is he aware of the ways his work come later come back to haunt him? I'm not sure, but I doubt it. I never learned about any of that while I went to school here. I know that I don't want uranium leeching into the steams and rivers around here, but even I am not that concerned about it that I feel like picketing or writing my govenor. Those who work there have made that choice, and it's not up to me to stop them. Same thing with the prarie dogs- they aren't bothering me, so I feel more strongly about letting them live. Is this apathy, ignorance, or just my personal sense of how it is?