The public has until Friday (Feb 22)  to comment on a proposal by federal wildlife officials working to save the endangered black-footed ferret by persuading more ranchers to reintroduce the species on their land.

The proposed safe harbor program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would assure landowners and tribes who voluntarily agree to have ferrets reintroduced to their land that they wouldn’t face future regulatory restrictions for protecting the species.

Under it, landowners and their neighbors could keep working on their properties without fear of penalties if a ferret is accidentally killed by farming equipment.

Cattlemen are divided the safe harbor proposal, though, because saving the black-footed ferret means also saving the it main diet: prairie dogs.