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In This Issue:
From The President Trouble viewing this newsletter? Click here to view it online.
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A Message From The President
Unusually wet summer weather has kept the prairie uncharacteristically green well into late July. The sage smells wonderful, grassland birds are finding abundant cover and forage, and visitors and locals are marveling at the high water levels appearing everywhere in ponds, creeks and wetland areas. You can enjoy new images of this gorgeous summer season in the updated photo gallery section on the APF website. For those of you who might be in the local area in early September, we hope you will consider joining us for another APF Open House, at which we currently expect sixty or more visitors from the local area. While overall Reserve wildlife numbers are increasing, like any complex and ambitious project our efforts follow the predictable theme of three steps forward, one step back. World Wildlife Fund is working valiantly to save large sections of existing prairie dog towns affected by a plague outbreak which, in turn, is threatening recovery efforts of black-footed ferrets. We are very pleased to note that even with current concerns about the state of the economy, we are incredibly fortunate to enjoy steadily increasing support from enthusiasts around the country. We thank all of you for your steadfastness in providing the financial resources needed to make the American Prairie Reserve experience as rich and rewarding as it can be today, and for future generations. Please come join us on the prairie sometime soon. Sincerely, Join APF For A Reserve Open House Please join in the fun at the Reserve Headquarters on September 6th from 11 AM to 3 PM. Lunch will be provided. We will be shuttling people out to see the bison and their new group of calves, hosting guided bird walks, and visiting the Prairie Union School. We are planning a variety of activities for all ages to enjoy, including activities for children. As with previous APF gatherings we anticipate this will be a great chance for many neighbors and visitors from far and wide to spend time with each other and for all to experience the beauty of the grasslands as summer transitions into fall. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Dollyann Wilcutt at dolly@americanprairie.org. To Our Foundation Donors APF would like to offer its heartfelt thanks to our recent foundation donors for their generous grants supporting APF’s mission to create the American Prairie Reserve (since January 2008).
A NOTE ON APF’S FISCAL CHANGE - The Board of Directors of APF has approved the decision to change from a fiscal year end to a calendar year end. We decided to do this to simplify the presentation of financial information to staff, board, donors and foundations. We will have our financial statements prepared by our auditors, and those financials will be available upon request. New Website Features. . .
World Wildlife Fund Science Update -
Electronic Newsletter Only, Anyone? In an effort to keep APF’s supporters informed, it has been our standard practice to send both an electronic and a print version of the newsletter. If you would prefer to receive only the electronic version, please send an email to ganay@americanprairie.org. Kindly type “E-Newsletter Only” in the subject line and include your first and last name in the body of the email. |
Dear Friends of the American Prairie Reserve,
An outbreak of sylvatic plague occurred this spring on black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies on and adjacent to the American Prairie Reserve (APR). Plague is an exotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is transmitted by infected fleas to mammalian hosts, such as prairie dogs. Introduced to North America in the early 1900’s, plague causes high mortality in prairie dogs, which is of conservation concern since prairie dogs are the primary food source for the endangered black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). In an effort to prevent further losses of both species to plague, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) collaborated with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologists by launching an intensive dusting campaign. Dusting prairie dog burrows with the insecticide Deltamethrin controls fleas and has been shown to reduce the impacts of plague. Nearly 1,500 acres and 39,000 burrows were dusted in June 2008 in an attempt to prevent plague from eliminating the remaining prairie dog colonies where black-footed ferrets are living. 
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