Every time we release a ferret into the wild we celebrate what we have
accomplished together in bringing back a species from the brink of extinction at
one time it was the rarest mammal in North America here in Northern Colorado
as well as in other Prairie lands and zoos across North America we are a part
of a remarkable story of rediscovery recovery and reintroduction to welcome a
native species back home
the black-footed ferret was one of numerous across the Great Plains but by
the mid part of the 20th century we thought it might be extinct
the last population was found in northwestern Wyoming disease hit that
area and we had to take the animals into captivity to protect the species at that
point in time we didn't know whether we'd ever be able to reintroduce them
into the wild but we were able to successfully capture breed them and now
they occur in eight states Mexico & Canada at 30 different sites.
I examined the first three or four black footed ferrets that they found dead I was just
shocked because I grew up in Wyoming I knew I heard that black footed ferrets
were were all gone and then I I knew this was an animal that wasn't supposed
to be alive anymore but we got one more chance always said
you know that strike one is that we farmed up a bunch of the habitat that
ferrets needed and prairie dogs needed and strike two was that we poisoned tens
of millions of acres and reduced their habitat that way and then strike three
which was almost an out- was this old-world disease Sylvatic Plague that
impacted both ferrets and prairie dogs But we it was only a foul-tip- we had
another chance and we were able to salvage some of those animals from that
last population capture breed them and provide reintroduction with other
species across the West
one of the key points to establishing recovery for black-footed ferrets in
northern Colorado and actually range-wide was the the opportunity to
set up a facility such as what we have here north of Fort Collins- the Ferret
Recovery Center. The issue is is that you can breed ferrets in just about any
facility that you would like but the key to this operation is that the ferrets
then have an opportunity to become one with their environment before they are
actually turned out in the wild. The work that goes on at the National
black-footed ferret Conservation Center involves pairing animals so that they
can have babies- it involves taking care of those babies when they're born- it
involves fairly common diseases that can affect them during their younger lives
but there's some more exotic diseases that affect them in the wild that we
have to prepare them for before their release and we've been successful with
captive breeding we've been successful with reintroduction efforts but the
long-term sustainability of those efforts are going to require to continue
in management. And the real challenge for us is do we have the will to continue to
assist this species over the long term to make sure it stays on the landscape?
You know it there's a whole saying out there and it usually refers to children
but it says "it takes a village to raise children" but I think in this case it
also takes a village to raise ferrets and the village also includes the city
of Fort Collins and the local government here and all the efforts they've done by
putting the live ferret display at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery to
doing environmental education and outreach to schools and classrooms to
actually contributing to ferret recovery by offering up some sites for us to
release ferrets on which is incredible because it's not an easy task
bringing black-footed ferrets back to this landscape really posed to challenge
the city of Fort Collins never had done something like this before so one of the
things we really needed to develop first it was a very purposeful and thoughtful
management plan of how we're going to manage not just ferrets but also
black-tailed prairie dogs in this landscape we wanted to make sure we
maintained a recreation use of the landscape we wanted to maintain kind of
the ranching history on the landscape we wanted to bring things like bison back
to this landscape and so we needed to be very thoughtful about how many prairie dogs
and where those colonies would exist we worked with our grazing Association both
Folsom and Natural Fort to make sure that anything that we did was not gonna have
a negative impact on them as well This landscape was part of a working
ranch and now the the city has continued on with that with the purchase of it and
they feel that grazing is part of that working landscape it it worked
out really well for us when we're approached is how can the ranching
community and the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret work hand-in-hand
and so about five years ago what it was a logical choice for us to work together
on this reintroduction process what are the things that strikes me about this
whole program is all the people were working together and having a same goal
and yes the goal is for the ferrets but it ties in with the environment also
and with the health of the prairie dog because they're also doing work with
trying to control plague and prey dogs because of the diet of the ferrets so it
has a I think it's more of an impact of the whole ecosystem instead of asking
the question about one animal
we can buy and protect lands at landscape-scale and utilize them both
for public enjoyment recreation support the ranching activities that occur up
here bring species back to the landscape that are missing and do that in a way
while still being a very transparent and open to public use. If it wasn't for the
people of Fort Collins we wouldn't be here supporting the work that we do
that's what we're very fortunate that way I think ranchers are the first the
first conservationists if you will because we take care of of the land we
take care of the livestock we take care of the wildlife it just goes hand in hand
sometimes we get questions from folks you know why do we have to save
everything and I don't know that we can why because it is indeed all
interconnected the loss of one one particular species even though it seems
to be a very very small portion will indeed impact the entire ecosystem my
son who's 13 he's growing up learning and listening to me talk about my work
and the job and the wildlife that I'm helping to manage and I think he's
really proud that his mom is doing something that's helping save an
endangered species there's no other city in the western United States where we're
trying to recover the endangered black footed ferret that's done as much for
the recovery of this species as a city of Fort Collins when folks look back and
ask themselves why do we still have a black-footed ferret and future
generations Fort Collins it's going to get part of the credit it really is
about community it's about people coming together to save a species from
extinction the saying think globally act locally rings true in the ferret story
Remember when we save a species we are saving a part of ourselves
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