The Black-footed ferrit is again in trouble

The New York Times reports that not only is the black-footed ferret, an endangered species, threatened with extinction due to plague, but the Forest Service has poisoned a large tract of land adjacent to their habitat to keep it free of prairie dogs (which are the food of the ferrets). If the Forest Service had not poisoned the land, prairie dogs would almost certainly move in, the ferrets would follow, and the survival of the species would be more probable.

This seems to be a situation in which the government is putting the economic interests of local ranchers, whose grazing lands might be devalued were the prairie dogs to get through the buffer zone and be introduced into ranch lands, against the interests of the rest of the citizens of the United States and indeed the world, who are generally in favor of saving this charismatic species.

Certainly the government needs to balance such interests, and the career employees of the Forest Service (many of whom I have known over time) try very hard to make the right calls.

I wish I had more confidence in the political appointees of the Bush administration who run the Forest Service in doing as good a job representing all of our interests.