Our Work
Strategic Orientation of Prairie Protection Colorado
Prairie Protection Colorado advocates for prairie dogs by drawing attention to the mass exterminations of prairie dog colonies along the Front Range, and by organizing and resisting the destruction of the last remaining prairie communities. PPC organizes on the ground and works with local governments, the media and legal channels to cast a web of protection over the last remaining prairie dog colonies throughout Colorado’s Front Range communities.
- Commercial Development
- Commercial Agriculture
- Ranching
- Federal and State Governmental agencies focused on facilitating corporate interests over protecting the prairies
How PPC Works
Our overall approach consists of three core initiatives. These initiatives are not mutually exclusive – in fact, they complement and reinforce each other. In our view, Prairie Protection is insufficient without committing to each of them.
#1. Habitat Protection
We commit to preserving and protecting the land and its indigenous lives, both fauna and flora. Our focus centers on the prairie dogs, as they are a keystone species essential to the thriving prairie’s grasslands and wildlife.
- Protest, delay and/or dismantle every known effort to destroy prairie dogs and the prairie. Reverse the trend of prairie dog extermination
- Currently, less than 1% of the range of Front Range prairie dog colonies remain. We want this range to increase by 25% within 5 years
- Relocate 75% of all threatened prairie dog colonies we cannot save otherwise, so they can thrive elsewhere
- Advocate for legal changes that recognize and protect the rights of the prairie and its indigenous lives to exist and thrive
- A priority is to engender government policies recognizing the value of protecting prairie dog colonies, and terminating those that define or treat prairie dogs as destructive rodent pests
- Procure land or the rights to land for the purpose of relocating prairie dog colonies and related species where possible
#2 Community Organizing
Create supportive, genuine, robust relationships with virtual and geographic communities and individuals committed to saving the prairie and prairie dogs. Capitalize on the resources, skills, and energies of our friends and allies to create a powerful force for resistance.
Our Goals
- Identify, recruit and engage righteous, committed allies who might focus on charges other than prairie dogs per se, and who may emphasize complementary tactics and strategies. capture 75% of such organizations under such an umbrella.
- We will help organize and steer such an umbrella organization – a confederacy of prairie protectors
- Generate material relationships, agreements and joint strategies among confederacy members to resist development, agriculture and ranching threats to the prairie.
- Cultivate effective relationships with civil defense and similar lawyers to serve as counselors and defense attorneys for PPC members.
- Materially support efforts to recall and/or replace members whose policies are antithetical to our mission.
#3 Education
One reason prairie dogs in particular and natural systems in general are destroyed (and that there is so little resistance to this destruction) is that people and organizations labor under false conceptions of the value of the natural world and the imperative of resisting development, agriculture and ranching. We prepare and deliver programs to counter this deadly trend.
Our Goals
- Develop and deliver flyers and pamphlets that counter prevalent myths about prairie dogs and their place in the Front Range ecosystem.
- Serve as spokespersons in public and social media to advocate for our prairie dog protection.
- Collaborate with other land defense organizations to develop and deliver education programs
- Develop training programs that provide potential or nascent activists with the knowledge and skills, confidence, and resources to take on activist work to protect prairie dogs and the prairie.
Prairie Protection Colorado
Prairie Protection Colorado is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation.
Prairie Protection is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit