After reviewing public comments on a Draft Environmental Assessment and Application for an Enhancement of Survival Permit, the Service has determined the reintroduction of black-footed ferrets on private lands in Logan County, Kansas, will not have a significant impact on the human environment and will not require an Environmental Impact Statement.
This week the Service released 24 captive-reared ferrets on private lands in Logan County, Kansas.
The proposed reintroduction experiment would continue for 5 years, after which, it may be terminated or continued indefinitely depending upon success and cooperating landowner desires.
Copies of the Application for an Enhancement of Survival Permit, Finding of No Significant Impact, and Black-Footed Ferret Reintroduction Plan for Logan County are available by visiting http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/blackfootedferret/, or by calling the Service's Mountain-Prairie Regional Office at 303-236-4256.
Black-footed ferrets, one of the rarest mammals in North America, were once found throughout the Great Plains, from northern Mexico to southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Their range extended from the Rocky Mountains east through the Dakotas and south through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The national goal to improve the status of the species from endangered to threatened is to establish 10 free-ranging populations of ferrets, spread over the widest possible area within their former range. To meet this down-listing goal, it is hoped that 1,500 breeding adult ferrets will be established in the wild by the year 2010.
Black-footed ferrets are found almost exclusively in prairie dog colonies. Prairie dogs are their principal prey, and ferrets live and rear their young in prairie dog burrows. Black-footed ferrets have one litter each year, with an average of about three kits per litter. In the wild, kits do not come above ground until they are two-three months old. Mothers and young remain together until early fall. By October, the kits are able to take care of themselves.
Reintroduction of Black-footed Ferrets in Logan County, Kansas Frequently Asked QuestionsHow many comments did you receive on this proposal to reintroduce black-footed ferrets in Kansas?
The comment period was open for 30 days from October 19, 2007 to November 19, 2007, during which time the Service received over 16,000 comments. The Service also accepted comments from meeting participants at a public meeting held in Logan County in November 2006. Twenty substantive comments were identified. Each of these comments was addressed in the Finding of No Significant Impact which is available at
