1. The Noble Wolves Working to celebrate and conserve a Colorado native species: Prairie Dogs Students: Valeria Davila, Shamsa Dhagane, Melanie Juarez, Nather Mohamed, Abdi Hassan, Hannah Jobe, Joseph Teklu, Martin reyes Garcia-Reyes Teacher: Miss Leigh Lotus School for Excellence Aurora, CO Principal: Mr. Eray Idil

2. Nather Mohamed ^ Joseph Teklu ^ < Melanie Juarez Hannah Jobe ^ Martin Reyes ^ Shamsa Dhagane V Valeria Davila ^ Abdi Hassan > We are middle school students passionate about Colorado native species, especially Prairie Dogs!!!!!!!

3. Environmental Issue The challenge we selected is Land and Water. The project we chose to focus on is endangered species and loss of biodiversity. Our primary ecosystem in Aurora is the grasslands. In the grasslands, the prairie dog is a keystone species that means many species rely on their activities for food or shelter. For example the burrowing owl, the ferruginous hawk, swift fox, western meadowlark, and the endangered black footed ferret. The black footed ferret has been extirpated in Aurora, Colorado due to prairie dog loss. This motivates us to strive to conserve prairie dogs in our area.

4. Environmental Issue Our topic is prairie dog conservation. We would like to conserve our local prairie dogs and ensure their existence in the future. We would like to conserve our local Prairie Dogs because they only exist in 4% of their original North American range. They have been going extinct due to people poisoning, shooting, and trapping them. Urban development is one of the main problems, and it can kill entire colonies all at once. The prairie dogs have no where to go, as humans spread their domain. There is a prairie dog colony near our school and our public library that we would like to help. The prairie dogs live on “for sale” land, and we are trying to relocate them to safer land that won’t be developed so they can remain.

5. Action Plan: Prairie Dog Day We want to help Prairie Dogs in our community, so we researched what other communities had done in their areas. We also contacted the Prairie Dog Coalition to see if we could help with what they were already doing. They recommended we work to proclaim Prairie Dog Day as a day to celebrate and educate our city about prairie dogs Therefore, we made our action plan to work with City Council Members and proclaim Prairie Dog Day a day of celebration and education in Aurora.

6. City Council Meeting After submitting the proclamation to the City Council. We took our proclamation to city hall. Our speaker, Joseph presented the proclamation to the Aurora City Council. The council included Aurora’s mayor! This all happened on Monday, November 24, 2014. The next slide shows our proclamation that we sent to city hall. Here is the footage. footage

7. Whereas, February 2 nd is Groundhog Day in the United States, but there are no native groundhogs in Colorado so the holiday is not suitable for Colorado. Prairie dogs are a similar and charismatic native species in Colorado, thus are worthy of celebration; Whereas, Prairie dogs are the keystone species in the grasslands which are an integral part of Colorado ecosystems. Many beautiful animals rely on their existence: the western burrowing owl, the ferruginous hawk, swift fox, western meadowlark, and because the loss of prairie dog colonies throughout the state the Black Footed Ferret has gone temporarily extinct in Colorado. Ecological conservationist are making efforts to reintroduce Black Footed Ferrets, thus a robust prairie dog population is paramount; Where as, Prairie dog populations are decreasing for many reasons: recreational killing, urban development, and general habitat loss, we have the opportunity to ensure their existence in the future here in Aurora through education and conservation; Whereas, Prairie Dog Day in the City of Aurora is a means to educate and celebrate the beautiful Colorado native species: prairie dogs. Prairie Dog Day Proclamation

8. Implementation To proclaim February 2nd Prairie Dog Day as a holiday in Aurora. We are did the the following: 1.Educated ourselves about local Prairie Dog populations and how to make a proclamation in Aurora. 2.Drafted a proclamation and submited it to the City of Aurora. 3.We are collaborating with city representatives to make the day official in Aurora. 4.On February 2nd, we will host an event at our school to educate and celebrate Prairie Dogs (spread to all of Aurora Public Schools when they grant the proclamation). 5.We developed a blog that you can use to follow our progress; https://www.tumblr.com/blog/noble-wolves https://www.tumblr.com/blog/noble-wolves This blog has more of what we have done, more pictures, and you can continue to follow our activities!

9. We collected signatures of people who support Prairie Dog Day during a petition. We also brought 5 letters of support from Colorado conservation organizations. To get word out for our project, we first used our schools STEAM Festival (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). We set up two tables there, one having our petition, and the other having quicksand goo, as a fun advertisement. After the event we continued to collect support by each group member taking the petition home, where we collected additional signatures. Implementation

10. Collaborators These wonderful people and organizations are essential to this project’s continued success: Southern Plains Land Trust, Wild Earth Guardians, Animal Help Now of Boulder, Defenders of Wildlife, Prairie Dog Coalition, and activist Terry Tempest William. Judith Miller educated us on prairie dogs and she told us to never give up! She helped us focus on our goals on prairie dog conservation. She also helped us collect our letters of support. All of these organizations provided letters of support, we thank them dearly. ( Judith Miller educating and inspiring us about Prairie Dog conservation in Colorado. )

11. Evaluate our plan, What are the results? We want Prairie Dog Day to become a holiday in Aurora, Colorado on February 2. We first tried sending a proclamation to Aurora City Council but they denied our request. So we came back and tried again. We presented a speech to the City Council of Aurora advocating for the value of Prairie Dog Day. At current we have meeting scheduled with our Aurora City Council representative to demonstrate community support of Prairie Dog Day and to advocate in a more personal way. We see that this project is not quite finished but we think we have accomplished a lot so far and that we continue to gather support for Prairie Dog Day in Aurora.

12. What will we do with the winnings? 1. We will continue to work with Southern Land Trust and purchase land to insure prairie dogs continue to exist in Colorado and to potentially reintroduce Black-footed ferret in a location not far from our school! 2. We will also use funds to plan and execute a School District wide Prairie Dog Day celebration.

13. Our motivation The Lexus Eco Challenge inspired us! We found that we wanted to acknowledge a local, yet diminishing species: prairie dogs. We want to raise awareness for them because we think that they deserve more respect. When we studied them, we found that there is only 4% of their original population! We also found the prairie dogs to be adorable! Our group wants to be able to raise awareness for them as well. One way of doing that is celebrating them: Prairie Dog Day. The day is perfect for celebrating, raising awareness, and it's also useful for educating people about not only prairie dogs but the positive impacts to the grassland ecosystem. Schools could teach the students about them on Prairie Dog Day. Despite out temporary set backs, we remain passionate about conserving Colorado’s native wildlife, especially, prairie dogs!

14. Photos of the Noble Wolves in action!!