As the Pueblo Chemical Depot is preparing for closure, the installation reintroduced a once-thought extinct species to the depot as part of a broader environmental management plan.
The black-footed ferret was one of the first species to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act dating back to 1967. Despite this protection, the species continued to decline, and was even thought to have become extinct in the late 1970s.
In 1981, a small population of the ferrets was discovered in Wyoming, and a captive-breeding program was created, with ferrets reintroduced at 33 locations in the Mountain West region, including nine sites in Colorado. PCD will join this effort.
“Pueblo Chemical Depot, by being chosen as the 10th reintroduction site in Colorado, is the first Department of Defense and Army installation to join in the ferret recovery program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” said PCD Commander Col. Rodney D. McCutcheon. “We believe this will be part of the enduring legacy of PCD.
“It is very gratifying to be able to play a role in preserving one of North America’s most endangered mammals,” he added. “This program promises to be a lasting benefit to the community and to the natural environment, even as we end the depot’s tenure.”
The Army established the depot in 1942 to store munitions for U.S. military efforts in World War II. The depot ensured the safe, secure storage of the chemical weapons stockpile until the stockpile was destroyed in 2023 and Pueblo Chemical Depot is now preparing for closure.
Since 2019, PCD, USFWS, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Natural Resource Conservation Service, the USFWS National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center, U.S. Department of Agricultural Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and a PCD adjacent landowner have been engaged in a conservation working group to discuss black-tailed prairie dog management and translocations at PCD and how this work established the foundation to conduct a black-footed ferret reintroduction. All the agencies and stakeholders listed have been in full support of this reintroduction effort since 2019 and will continue to support this effort in the future.
PCD has also worked closely with neighboring Colorado State University - Pueblo to reestablish the historic black-tailed prairie dog population, establishing 1,000 acres of new prairie dog colonies within the black-footed ferret conservation management area. The population of prairie dogs had been decimated by a sylvatic plague outbreak in 2016-2019, which reduced the prairie dog population at PCD by 90%. This caused a chain-reaction and spurred losses and declines in the population of several sensitive species, including swift fox, ferruginous hawks, mountain plovers and burrowing owls.
“The plan to bring back the black-footed ferret has been carefully aligned with the overall environmental management plan of the site,” McCutcheon said. “The reestablishment of the prairie dog population, and the conservation and preservation of other sensitive species at the site is the perfect example of a true conservation success story at PCD.”
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