PRESS RELEASE: Douglas County Mall and Prairie Dog Colony

Nation’s Biggest Mall in Douglas County Slated to Destroy One of the Largest Prairie Dog Colonies on the Front Range

By Deanna Meyer:   February 13, 2015

Castle Rock, CO – Douglas County’s Town of Castle Rock recently approved construction of the ‘Nation’s Biggest Mall’ on top of one of the largest prairie dog colonies along Colorado’s Front Range. The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog population is currently at less than 1% of its original number – these animals are in imminent danger of becoming extinct. Unfortunately, laws do not protect prairie dogs because they have been incorrectly classified as “pests”, a result of myths portraying them as plague-carrying, prairie-destroying rodents. However, scientific evidence clearly shows that prairie dogs enhance the prairies in every sense and that not one case of the plague in humans has been directly linked to prairie dogs.

People care

Many residents in Douglas County and throughout Colorado are concerned about this particular colony of dogs since it is a very large, intact colony that feeds a variety of other prairie species. In addition, a large proportion of Douglas County citizens do not want construction of this enormous mall in our small town. This mall clearly violates many principles set forth in our Comprehensive Master Plan, including those set out to protect our wildlife and scenic values of our town.

We set a petition in circulation which now has 1,400 signatures and climbing, a fundraiser that has taken off and raised 1600 dollars to date, a webpage and a FaceBook page. Fox 31 covered our story, Wildlife News published our article and people have shown a strong interest in this particular story.

A Town Council Meeting is planned for February 17th at 6pm at 100 N. Wilcox Street in the Town Council Building of Castle Rock. Concerned individuals will be voicing their issues about the wildlife and the mall at a public meeting.

I would love to send you pictures, videos and direct links for further information about this story so you can help us to further spread this information.

Help us share our story

Alberta Development is currently planning to exterminate the vast majority of this vibrant prairie dog colony and we need media outlets to help us get out the information on this issue. We hope your news outlet will contact us and help us spread the word so that people are informed about the wildlife impacts of this development.

Contact

Deanna Meyer, Wildlands Defense

Douglas County Resident

720-722-1691

savethecastlerockmallprairiedogs@earthlink.net