Comcast says a parking lot will be “prettier” than a rare undeveloped lot home to a thriving prairie dog colony in Aurora

After a nearly year-long battle, the Aurora City Zoning Commission approved Comcast’s application to build a parking lot over what is now an urban prairie dog colony. Neighbors are protesting, saying the eradication of the colony will forever change their community.

Alexis Kenyon reports.

In one corner of Aurora, a prairie dog colony lives on a vacant two-and-a-half-acre lot. Heather Anderson has lived in the area for about 10 years and says even though the neighborhood of about 70 homes is surrounded by development, the prairie dog colony brings in all kinds of wildlife.

“You know, we have coyotes, we have hawks, we have loons, we have owls, we’ve seen foxes, which I thought was someone’s small dog and then realized it was a fox and was blown away,” says Anderson.

The prairie dog colony sits on a flood plain, and for more than 25 years zoning laws have protected the animals from development.

Don’t you want it to look prettier?

Recently, however, telecommunication giant Comcast, which owns the land, has announced plans to expand their nearby offices. They put in an application to the zoning commission and say they need extra space for returning employees and large training events. A Comcast representative told Heather Anderson the parking lot would be an improvement to what it is now.

“And he said, well, don’t you want it to look prettier? And I go, no, we don’t want that. We don’t want that. It would drive away the wildlife that we’re exposed to every day. You know, what about the hawks and the snakes? There’s so many other species that rely on that colony to exist,” says Anderson.

“It’s interesting because I do think Comcast thinks a parking lot is nice,” says Deanna Meyers.

Deanna Meyers is the Executive Director of Prairie Protection Colorado.

“And the Commissioner even said, like, it would be an improvement over what was there. And, you know, they see, they see a parking lot as being nicer than a community of wildlife,” says Meyers.

Prairie Protection Efforts and Relocation Offers

Meyers says even if they don’t save the lot in Aurora, Comcast could relocate the prairie dogs. At the July hearing, multiple people offered to take the prairie dogs onto their own personal land. Comcast representatives said they appreciate the offer, but it makes more sense to euthanize the animals. Unless they find something within county lines, it’s too difficult to get relocation permits. Comcast declined an interview request for this story but said in a written statement, “Numerous options are being explored to manage a prairie dog colony located on the property in as humane a manner as possible.”

Understanding Prairie Dogs: Ecological Importance

Meyers says most people don’t understand what they’re looking at when they see prairie dog colonies.

“A lot of people who don’t know much about prairie dogs will drive by a prairie dog lot and be like, ‘Ew, prairie dogs, they are a blight on the land,’ and they prefer to see a nicely clipped, bright green chemical lawn compared to a healthy colony of animals who are feeding the owls and the hawks and the coyotes and the fox and the eagles and everybody else,” says Meyers.

Prairie dogs often are the subject of a love-hate relationship. While some regard them as carriers of disease and bringers of blight, prairie dogs are a native species and before humans started killing them, more than 5 million lived throughout the Western U.S. John Hoogland is a professor at the University of Maryland and one of the world’s leading prairie dog experts.

“Prairie dogs are keystone species, and the black-tailed prairie dog, which is the one we’re talking about here, is the ultimate keystone species. And that just means it affects lots of other organisms in the areas where it lives. And one of the most dramatic ways that it affects the other organisms concerns predators because they are food for badgers, bobcats, hawks, eagles, black-footed ferrets, falcons, and so… If you remove the prairie dogs, the buffet is gone,” says Hoogland.

Beyond being a vital food source, the prairie dog burrows capture groundwater and restore carbon to the soil. The nutrient-rich soil helps restore native plants who then fight invasive weeds. The burrows provide shelter for hundreds of species, including the endangered nesting owls and the endangered black-footed ferret. Grazing animals seek out the colonies, and birds build nests nearby because the short-clipped grass around the colonies is ideal for foraging the hundreds of different insects who also live there.

“So the bottom line is, these prairie dogs and their colony sites have a major impact on the area. And if you take them away, then all these animals are affected, you know, that’s the reality,” says Hoogland.

Challenges and Misconceptions About Prairie Dogs

Even so, Hoogland says, there has been a war on prairie dogs for the past 100 years.

“People out west don’t like prairie dogs, is the bottom line, and that’s why they now occupy 2 percent of their, less than 2 percent probably, of their former range,” says Hoogland.

Prairie dog burrows are blamed for creating unsafe conditions for cattle. The animals also have a reputation for carrying the plague. Hoogland says the blame is misplaced.

“The fleas are the main culprits for transmitting plague to prairie dogs and also to people. So even though the prairie dogs die, there can be these plague-positive fleas at the burrow entrances. Those fleas can last for over a year. If these people want to say, see, by having prairie dogs there, that’s a threat to humans and their pets and everything else. Well, they could dust those burrows with a flea powder. I’ve done it. Other people have done it. It kills almost every bloody flea there. And so then the chances of prairie dogs getting sick or people getting sick is almost zilch,” says Hoogland.

Legal and Environmental Implications

In the late 90s, Colorado reclassified prairie dogs as a nuisance species, thereby making it legal to exterminate prairie dogs on private and public lands.

“Now, let’s get one thing straight though, you know, in Aurora, that’s a small colony, so it’s, it’s like, well, what difference does it make? Well, the proof is in the pudding. The local residents say, oh my goodness, it has an impact that everybody can notice,” says Hoogland.

The Future for this prairie dog colony is grim

Even so, back in Aurora, the Zoning Commission approved Comcast’s application to build a parking lot over the neighborhood prairie dog colony. Heather Anderson says the decision feels indicative of where the country is going.

“Especially when we’re going into our fourth day of like the worst pollution in the world and they want to build a parking lot over an area that it’s also drawing attention to the whole bigger picture of the annihilation of prairie dogs across Colorado for development. And it should be a warning to all of us. We have to start thinking differently. And with Comcast, it’s such an obvious grotesque move to take a prairie dog community of over a hundred animals and kill them so that you can put down asphalt in a flood zone,” says Meyers.

The neighbors say that Comcast has already put up a chain-linked fence around the lot. They fear the colony’s days may be numbered.