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A plan to restore one of America's rarest mammals to northern Utah appears endangered by a fear of the Endangered Species Act.

Informal "what-if" chats between state wildlife biologists and ranch managers at LDS Church-owned Deseret Land and Livestock on the south end of Rich County hatched a plan to restore black-footed ferrets there.

With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's blessing, the state would release 20 of the 2-foot-long predators per year — some from a captive breeding program, some from restored colonies around the West — to feast on prairie dogs living on the ranch. Government agents agreed they would impose no new land restrictions there nor on neighboring ranchers, and that they would gather up the animals and quit the experiment if people endured economic losses.

But they also gave the Rich County Commission a veto. At a public hearing last month, residents made it clear they expect the commission to wield that veto.

Commissioner Bill Cox said he cannot recall receiving any comments favoring ferret reintroduction, and he expects the deal to die with a commission vote scheduled for Wednesday.

"There's too much uncertainty there to bring in an endangered species and put it in an environment where we don't have total control," Cox said. "Why bring something in to have to manage around?"

Biologists tried to supply certainty. Releasing the animals as an experimental, nonessential population, as the government has done with other ferret colonies, gives flexibility not allowed with endangered species enjoying full federal protection. Program managers said they wouldn't impose restrictions on grazing or other uses even if ferrets migrate onto federal Bureau of Land Management land.

Twice considered extinct, black-footed ferrets resurfaced in isolated colonies. The first, discovered in South Dakota in 1964, died out in the 1970s, when a captive breeding program failed. The second, discovered in Meeteetse, Wyo., in 1981, nearly succumbed to a disease outbreak before biologists captured all of the animals for breeding.

This time it worked, regenerating the species from seven "founder" animals that produced live kits. After 17 U.S. reintroductions and one each in Canada and Mexico, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates it is halfway to its goal of 1,500 adult ferrets in the wild.

One small population exists in eastern Utah, where state biologists believe about two dozen ferrets are living in Uintah County's Coyote Basin. Uintah County Commissioner Mike McKee said despite initial government assurances that the ferrets never would need more than 10,000 acres, the BLM has widened the area where it protects prairie dogs for the ferrets.

"It grows upon itself," he said of the program.

Vernal oil field consultant Bill Ryan said some clients have faced timing restrictions on drilling in the basin, and people aren't allowed to walk dogs in the area for fear of transmitting disease.

"We were told that wouldn't happen," he said.

Rich County ranchers worry that even if the government has good intentions, nothing stops environmental groups from suing to force greater protection. And Utah Division of Wildlife Resources mammals coordinator Kevin Bunnell said he can understand the fear.

"The courts are always a wild card," Bunnell said.

Deseret Land and Livestock tentatively approved the plan, Bunnell said, but only if the ranch's neighbors could be convinced. Deseret officials did not respond to requests for comment this week.

In 2009, Colorado-based WildEarth Guardians petitioned Fish and Wildlife to strip the experimental tag from the three largest wild populations and give them more protections. The agency declined, saying willing partnerships with states, tribes and private property owners had been key to recovery efforts. Those three robust ferret populations are in South Dakota, Wyoming and Arizona.

The wildlife advocacy group still contends that experimental designations are inadequate when ranchers continue to shoot or poison prairie dogs, the ferrets' only prey.

"We need to pause there and decide whether that's really appropriate," said Nicole Rosmarino, the group's wildlife program director.

Unfamiliar with the specifics of the Rich County plan, Rosmarino could not say whether it would help the species recover. But she said the government should not offer lesser protections on federal lands — if ferrets end up there.

"Public lands," she said, "whether state or federal, should be a flagship for endangered-species recovery."

It's unclear how ferrets would do on the Deseret ranch, Bunnell said, because the prairie dog population there is smaller than in other recovery zones. There may be fewer than 1,000 prairie dogs on the ranch, compared to tens of thousands in South Dakota's Conata Basin, where ferrets have thrived. Still, there aren't a lot of big prairie dog populations left, he said, so the natural next step in ferret recovery is to see if they can make a living in smaller pockets.

State wildlife managers support establishing new ferret populations, Bunnell said, in hopes of removing the animals from the endangered-species list.

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The ferret's comeback

Black-footed ferrets typically are 19 to 24 inches long and weigh 1.4 to 2.5 pounds.

They appeared extinct until some turned up in Meeteetse, Wyo., in 1981.

Disease threatened to wipe out the Meeteetse ferrets, causing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to capture them all by 1987.

Captive breeding succeeded, leading to the first reintroduction in Shirley Basin, Wyo., in 1991, and a second at Badlands National Park, S.D., in 1994.

Ferrets have been reintroduced to 19 sites, mostly on the northern Great Plains and Southwestern grasslands.

The government estimates it is halfway to its goal of 1,500 adult ferrets in the wild.

Six breeding centers maintain a total captive population of at least 240 adults.

Ferrets rely solely on prairie dogs — a species facing its own threats — for food and tunnels.

A top threat is from a nonnative, flea-transmitted plague that has broken out in some colonies.

Utah has one small ferret colony on the high desert just southwest of Dinosaur, Colo.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service