FWS Reconsidering Lesser Prairie Chicken Listing

In late November, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) agreed to reconsider the status of the lesser prairie chicken, whose habitat sprawls through the oil and gas fields of West Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and the Rockies. In response to a petition requesting relisting, the agency published a notice concluding that the recent petition has substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the lesser prairie chicken may be warranted.

In 2015, the once-protected grouse was removed from the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) List of Endangered & Threatened Wildlife after a federal judge overturned the rule protecting the bird. The judge sided with the oil industry and vacated the final listing rule. The court found that the agency hadn’t adequately considered state conservation efforts and this ruling effectively ended ESA protections for the bird.

Shortly after the judgment, conservation groups asked FWS to issue an emergency rule listing the bird as an endangered species, stating that certain populations need immediate federal protections. While the FWS declined the groups’ request for an emergency listing, the agency published a notice in the Federal Register which indicates that listing the lesser prairie chicken may be necessary. Following this notice, the agency is now required to conduct a 12-month review of the grouse’s status under the ESA before actually listing the bird as threatened.

Conservationists argue that the bird needs protection immediately, stating that the agency must promptly relist the species and develop a better strategy to conserve it on both state and private lands. On the other hand, republican lawmakers emphasize the importance of giving the already-in-place, multi-state conservation plan time to work. They believe the ESA should be a last resort and that local, cooperative efforts could set precedent for species conservation without unnecessary federal government intervention.

Just last week, the Senate removed a controversial public land provision from a National Defense Authorization Act that would have blocked implementation for an Obama administration sage-grouse policy. More specifically, it would have banned listing of the bird under the ESA for 10 years and would have curbed Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service grouse management plans. Additionally, it would have forbid the Interior Department from completing a proposed 10 million-acre withdrawal of public lands to protect sage-grouse from hard rock mining claims.

The Defense bill is not the only place the House is attempting to block the Obama administration’s sage-grouse policy. Over the summer, House Republicans approved a fiscal year 2017 Interior appropriations bill (HR 5538) that would forbid FWS from listing the great sage-grouse, as well as forbid implementation of BLM and Forest Service plans governing the greater sage-grouse and forbid the Interior Department from completing the proposed 10-million acre withdrawal. The Senate Appropriations Committee also approved a counterpart appropriations bill (S 3086), containing only the listing restriction. However, House leaders have agreed to defer action on the bill until next year to allow President-elect Trump to assume office.

As such, it remains to be seen how vigorously FWS will pursue the 12-month reviews of the prairie chicken and whether the House will continue its attempt to block the Obama administration’s sage-grouse policies, as the Trump administration is set to take over in January.