copy: BushWatchers
Note: Were you lacking a really good reason to hate Wal-Mart? Read this.
Source/Letters: Boulder Daily Camera
Editor Susan Deans <deanss @ dailycamera.com> (close spaces)
Link: http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/lafayette_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2425_4955456,00.html
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From: "Chris at RMAD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Wal-Mart kills prairie dog colony
Company says it looked at options before fumigating
By Kate Larsen, Camera Staff Writer < larsenk @ dailycamera.com>
August 30, 2006
LAFAYETTE Construction started this week on a Wal-Mart Supercenter along U.S. 287, and some local residents are unhappy with the company's decision to kill a small prairie dog colony on the site.
Earlier this year, Boulder County asked Wal-Mart to contribute to local land preservation to offset the impact its new store will have on local prairie habitat. Additionally, one local resident offered to help the company relocate the animals to city open space.
The company rejected both offers and fumigated the colony after researching relocation and other options.
"We did look into relocation options and were just having too much difficulty with the movement of them across county lines and having a site available in the given time frame," said Gray McGinnis, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.
The retail giant is building a 207,000-square-foot store on 31 acres on the west side of U.S. 287 between Arapahoe and Baseline roads, expected to open in the summer of 2007. The project was approved by the Lafayette City Council nearly 11 months ago. The Supercenter will replace the 20-year-old Wal-Mart on South Boulder Road in the city.
The company submitted a prairie dog mitigation plan to the city, and followed every step of it, McGinnis said. Attempts to relocate the animals, as well as efforts to give the animals as prey to programs that help raptors and black-footed ferrets, were unsuccessful, he said.
Although Lafayette has open space dedicated for prairie dog relocation, it is intended to serve animals from public properties within the city.
Resident Karen Norback said she offered to approach the city's Open Space Advisory Committee for Wal-Mart in hopes of relocating the colony to the city-owned land.
"I thought if they were willing to contribute money to the open space program, and with the small number of dogs on the site, that it could have been a win-win situation for everyone," Norback said. "But they didn't respond to me."
Norback called Wal-Mart's actions "unacceptable."
According to the company's mitigation plan filed with the city, "humane extermination shall consist of use of an approved fumigant." On Tuesday, a worker was covering up prairie dog holes on the site with dirt and a shovel.
This spring, the Boulder County Open Space Department asked Wal-Mart to help preserve local open space instead of using its own program to purchase land elsewhere that wouldn't directly benefit Lafayette.
"I actually never heard anything from the Wal-Mart folks," said Ron Stewart, director of the county's open space department.
McGinnis said Wal-Mart prefers to put its dollars into its Acres for America Program. The company has committed $35 million to preserving one acre of wildlife habitat for every acre it develops over the next decade.
Recent acquisitions include land in California, Maine, Arkansas, Oregon and Louisiana.
Lafayette resident Yemaya Thayer said her efforts to contact Wal-Mart with concerns about the prairie dogs also led to nowhere.
"For a company that is one of the most profitable in the country not to be able to throw a little money Lafayette's ways to help our prairie habitat is obscene," Thayer said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Kate Larsen at (303) 473-1361 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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