TRINIDAD, Colorado (STPNS) -- Federal officials have taken steps in ridding a runway at Las Animas County?s airport of its potentially-dangerous ?pest? problem ? prairie dogs living in the unpaved landing strip.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials have begun exterminating the prairie dogs by shooting them, and in the early spring or summer of 2007, work will begin on poisoning the prairie dogs with a poison that will not affect any other animals.

A recent Federal Aviation Administration inspection of the airport discovered a prairie dog colony had established itself in the runway. County officials contacted the USDA?s local predator control officer for assistance.



At a recent county commission meeting, representatives from the USDA presented an update on the prairie dog problems that have been occurring at Perry Stokes Airport.

The prairie dogs are inhabiting the east-west runway, which is an unpaved runway used by pilots in case the velocity of the wind makes it difficult to land on the north-south runway, which is paved.

The prairie dogs? presence in and on the runway may become a future danger to pilots and passengers, but the airport cannot afford to pave the runway to rid it of the animals.

Although the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) calls for an environmental impact analysis to be done when proposing a method of eliminating the prairie dogs, USDA officials decided the problem would get much worse by the time the analysis had been completed, so they decided to move forward without the analysis.