I wanted to inform everybody that Texas Parks and Wildlife is spearheading a reintroduction of the Black Footed Ferret on the Rita Blanca National Grasslands. If they do this under their current proposal it would shut down 50% of the prairie dog hunting currently available to public hunters.

We need to spread the word about this. Contact Texas State officials and TPWD personnel and voice your opinion about this.

To give you a little history about the black footed ferret; It was once thought to be extinct till a small population was discovered in Wyoming. Through a captive breeding program they started reintroducing them in 1991. In order to get them delisted they must have 3000 ferrets living in the wild. Since 2008 they have released almost 2500 ferrets.

Currently they estimate 400-500 living in the wild. They are currently spending about $44000 -$55000 per ferret with a $1,000,000 per year budget.

This project is headed by the Black-Footed Ferret Working Group, which consists of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Wildlife Services, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Texas Agri-Life Extension and researchers from Texas Tech and West Texas A&M Universities.

I personally don't care if they are trying to reintroduce the ferret but do it on private land that doesn't affect the public.

Sean Kyle sean.kyle@tpwd.state.tx.us is the Texas state biologist in charge of this.



I know he is busy with the Lesser Prairie Chicken deal and may not be aware of the concern from the public and needs to be. I encourage everybody to email him and let him know your thoughts.


sean.kyle@tpwd.state.tx.us