In September of 2015, a federal judge in Utah sided with a group of landowners from Cedar City, asserting that the commerce clause did not give the federal government jurisdiction to regulate the Utah prairie dog—a threatened species, in that the animal is found only within the state of Utah and has no commercial value.
This is a case of Southern Utah landowners and their decade-long fight with federal regulators in developing their private property.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service appealed the ruling. A decision is expected later this summer. USFW Director Dan Ashe assured congressman Chris Stewart that even if the service wins its appeal, it will cooperate with local agencies.
“I think with continued help from the state of Utah – how we can best position ourselves so that we and the state of Utah, and hopefully the counties down in the range of the prairie dog, will be positioned to work together to come out of that in a positive way.”
Stewart also questioned the director about the possibility of introducing to Southern Utah, the Mexican wolf, another federally protected animal.