This is what got us started! Habitat Harmony was formed after its founders successfully translocated 150 Gunnison's prairie dogs in 2000 from a colony that had been graded to prepare for a soccer field at Foxglenn Park in Flagstaff, Arizona. This was the first known translocation of Gunnison's prairie dogs in northern Arizona.

After incorporating in 2000, Habitat Harmony moved a colony of prairie dogs from Doney Park, just east of Flagstaff. In 2003 we translocated 299 prairie dogs from the Flagstaff Mall expansion site. In 2005 we moved 20 prairie dogs from 4 different sites around Flagstaff, using the sudsing method instead of trapping. This relocation project was preceded by extensive research on the sudsing method, and training from an experienced sudsing relocator from Colorado. In 2007 we moved 16 prairie dogs from a fire station development site on Fort Valley Road.

During the summer of 2008, board member Emily (Nelson) Renn led the effort to move to a safe habitat 195 prairie dogs that would otherwise have been poisoned. The effort was funded by a grant from the Arizona Heritage Fund to study the post release survivial of prairie dogs using different release methods. Click here to read more about the research project.

In 2011, we worked with biologists at Camp Navajo to help suds a colony of prairie dogs out of an area of an active firing range on the base. We also worked with EN3, Professionals, LLC and APS to translocate 44 prairie dogs from the site of a new solar panel array in Doney Park, and helped train and assist wildlife biologists on a translocation of prairie dogs from the Williams Elementary-Middle School to re-establish an abandoned colony on the Kaibab National Forest.

In 2013, we translocated 70 prairie dogs from a site scheduled for development at the intersection of I-40 and Country Club Drive.

Our work moving prairie dogs to safe habitats led us to see the need for appreciating and protecting the wildlife of northern Arizona.