Comment on FR Doc # 2010-15583

I am writing to ask that you please list the Mountain Plover as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This beautiful, fragile bird is part of our natural heritage and is being lost daily. Their habitat has been and continues to be destroyed daily throughout their native range. The prairie dog colonies that these wonderful animals use for their nesting areas are being destroyed along with the prairie dogs who create these areas. Development, agriculture, mining and drilling, etc. all contribute the the destruction and decline of this species. I personally have spent years working on countless prairie dog colonies throughout the state of Colorado and have not seen a single Mountain Plover in the area. This tells me better than any scientific study that these birds are disappearing faster than we can believe. It is my hope that you will take this decline seriously and will pay attention to the scientific data that has shown these animals need our protection. To date, you have not offered any type of protection for blacktailed prairie dogs or whitetailed prairie dogs and these animals support so many other declining species. It is about time that our government took this job seriously and began to offer protections that the Endangered Species Act was designed for. Our planet needs our help and these individual species need our protection. If the crisis in our Gulf Coast doesn't show what can happen without our government taking steps to offer true protection to our native wildlife and their habitat, I don't know what does. As a nature lover and working protector of our wildlife, I know that I need our government to step up and use the tools we have given them to help us protect the beauty and majesty that our country has the privilege to live with. You should have offered that protection to the prairie dog, you can at least offer it to the Mountain Plover. Do the job we entrusted you to perform, protect our wildlife for the future.