PARKER, Colo. — A Walgreens in Parker is under fire after advocates say landscapers it hired poured rocks over prairie dog burrows.
Mackenzie Beaudoin was driving by the store last week, located at 19028 Lincoln Avenue, when she noticed the burrows had been graded, covered with a tarp and had rocks poured on them.
"Once I realized that they actually had covered up the burrows, my stomach just started turning because, you know, they're alive under there," she said.
Because of the noise this would have created, Beaudoin suspects the prairie dogs hid in the burrows and didn't realize they couldn't come back out until it was too late for some of them.
"They're scared of all the noise. They're scared because it's not normal. Then, the oxygen gets cut off," Beaudoin said. "It's sad, but we probably did lose half a colony here."
Denver7 saw several areas where the prairie dogs likely ripped the tarp beneath the rocks to get out from underground and escape.
The Town of Parker says what happened was illegal. It issued Walgreens a notice of violation of its municipal code and a stop-work order for not having the permits for construction within the town's right-of-way and for not trying to relocate the prairie dogs.
A Walgreens spokesperson sent Denver7 the following statement:
"As part of a landscape improvement project at our 19028 Lincoln Ave. location, on Walgreens property, prairie dog access points were inadvertently covered. When we became aware of what had taken place, work on the project stopped. We appreciate the importance of this issue to the community and are working on a resolution to protect the prairie dogs."
Tuesday evening, Walgreens issued a second statement:
"Our landscaping partner is working through final remediation plans. Those plans are expected to include relocating the prairie dogs from our Lincoln Avenue store location, which is Walgreens property"
Beaudoin is happy the work has stopped, and she hopes this serves as a lesson that even as humans keep encroaching on their habitats, prairie dogs do have some protections.
"They're really not an invasive species," she said. "We are just developing so much quicker that they have nowhere to go."
Deanna Meyer, executive director of Prairie Protection Colorado, says the owner of the landscaping company Walgreens hired has been in touch and said the company would remove the rocks Tuesday. However, as of Tuesday afternoon, they still remained. A spokesperson with the Town of Parker says town staff are not aware of these plans.
