Department of the Interior: Prairie Dog Protection Grant for Oral Bait Plague Vaccine

The tasks to be performed under this agreement are as follows: 1. Promote black-tailed prairie dog conservation as a vehicle towards an ecosystem approach (i.e., prairie) in the Western Great Plains. 2. Establish a working group developing an oral bait plague vaccine and a management strategy led by a WAFWA appointed facilitator is needed to continue the ecosystem approach underway by all parties involved. 3. Assist in the conservation of prairie species in various ways including, but not limited to, land use management planning, species reintroductions, field vaccine distribution, pest management, etc. 4. Expand coordination and management activities and seek additional financial resources through collaboration to strengthen grassland conservation effort to reverse the trend of long term decline indicative of many grassland dependent species, both at the state, national, and international level.

This Single Source Award is being made in accordance with Department of the Interior Policy 505 DM 2.14 B (1) Continuation – The activity to be funded is necessary to the satisfactory completion of, or is a continuation of an activity presently being funded, and for which competition would have a significant adverse effect on the continuity or completion of the activity, which allows for award without competition to an applicant the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) as they have been involved in a variety of long-standing and recently initiated efforts to conserve and manage wildlife and habitats in the Western Great Plains. Many of these efforts have been conducted with a single species approach. WAFWA has directed its Habitat and Nongame and Endangered Species committees to promote black-tailed prairie dog conservation as a vehicle towards an ecosystem approach (i.e., prairie) in the Western Great Plains. WAFWA has begun work on the development and distribution of the oral plague vaccine.