Four years experimental study in northern Arizona showed that prairie
dogs destroy 60 percent of the wheat grass, 99 percent of the dropseed,
and 83 percent of the grama grass, or 80 percent of the total potential
annual production of forage. The possible destruction of four-fifths of
the forage, or even a far smaller proportion, is serious enough at any
time, but in periods of drought it is likely to be calamitous.
The following pictures show typical prairie dog infestation.
[Illustration]
Prairie dog mounds on abandoned Indian farm, Southern Navajo
Reservation, Arizona.
[Illustration]
Area practically denuded of grass by prairie dog--Wescalero Indian
Reservation, New Mexico.
[Illustration]
Dogs on leash and tin cans rattling in the wind are some of the
primitive methods employed by Indians in futile attempt to save crops
from ravages of prairie dogs in the Southwest.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Indian cornfield totally destroyed by prairie dogs.
[Illustration]
Cotton and corn fields damaged by prairie dogs in northwest Texas.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Side of basin denuded by prairie dogs--devastation being rapidly
completed by erosion. Cochetopa Forest, Colorado.
[Illustration]
Prairie dogs prepare an ideal condition for the start of sheet
erosion on hillsides by denudation of vegetative cover. Note lack of
vegetation. Erosion once started is accelerated by other factors as
shown on page 11.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]