On November 4, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission will meet in Fort Morgan to decide whether to end recreational prairie dog shooting on public land. Commissioners should vote yes.

Prairie dogs are far more than targets. About 120 species rely on them, according to Defenders of Wildlife. Burrowing owls and swift foxes move into their burrows. Endangered black-footed ferrets need prairie dog colonies to survive, both for food and for shelter. When prairie dogs vanish, the animals that depend on them are put at risk too.

Prairie dog colonies once spread across huge stretches of the West. Today they cover only a small share of that range, and grasslands in Colorado are more and more broken up. The Prairie Dog Coalition and Defenders of Wildlife estimate that 97% of the prairie dogs killed by shooters die on public land, the land that belongs to every Coloradan.

Sport shooting may also harm other wildlife. Eagles and hawks feed on prairie dog carcasses, and retired University of Wyoming veterinary pathologist Donal O’Toole told Cowboy State Daily that research links recreational shooting to lead poisoning in raptors.

Colorado has already spent time and money protecting prairie dogs, including vaccine baits against plague. Shooting for fun on public land undercuts that work. The proposal would cover public land only, so ranchers and landowners would keep managing their own property.

Colorado’s public lands should support healthy grasslands, not target practice. Sign the petition to urge the CPW Commission to ban recreational prairie dog shooting on public land at its November 4 vote.