News & Press

The Endangered Species Act has been our national law for 50 years this year. Last month we recognized our endangered species including New Mexico’s iconic lesser prairie chicken on Endangered Species Day. However, New Mexico nonprofit CEHMM rightly sounded the alarm bell for the lesser prairie chicken when it noted its population count of less than 230 birds remaining on 26 leks in the Eastern New Mexico shinnery oak region on lands enrolled in its conservation program.

The numbers reported by CEHMM are down 90% in the first quarter of this year alone.

At the same time, another national priority – building renewable energy – is being held back because of ESA and other regulations.

Faster recovery of species and faster approvals of new energy projects go together in the conservation banking program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservation banks ensure no net loss of habitat for each project by paying for the expedited recovery of wildlife including this rare grouse species.

March 19 – The world’s natural capital, on which humanity depends, has been steadily declining while human, physical and financial capital have risen manifold over the past 50 years. Sir Partha Dasgupta, author of The Economics of Biodiversity, has argued that the world has collectively mismanaged its “global portfolio of assets”. And this mismanagement, according to World Economic Forum research, has put more than half of the world’s GDP at risk due to its high dependency on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Why, then, are we failing to value nature and reward those who protect it?

One reason is that we have prioritised engineering solutions over nature-based solutions. Nature can provide a third of climate mitigation potential and yet receives less than 3% of total climate finance. The situation is even more dire when it comes to climate adaptation, where less than 10% of funding in the least-developed nations harnesses nature. Moreover, we have equated climate change with counting carbon emissions, limiting our ability to address the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and pollution. Lastly, the carbon market playbook does not work for valuing and investing in standing forests and pristine seas.

Mack Kizer remembers seeing lesser prairie chickens on his family ranch in eastern New Mexico growing up. He said his children and grandchildren also have seen the birds on the ranch since childhood and he hopes they can continue to enjoy the unique animal’s presence long into the future.

As the bird’s population dwindles, Kizer’s family is one of a group of landowners who have entered into agreements that allow them to be paid to preserve lesser prairie chicken habitat on their ranch.

The bird’s habitat has become more and more fragmented. The birds living in eastern New Mexico and its neighboring section of Texas are now isolated from birds farther north in places like Oklahoma and Kansas. 

This month, the lesser prairie chicken’s southern population will join the list of animals in the United States that are considered endangered. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in November that the bird would be added to the list. The endangered species status goes into effect 60 days after a notice is published in the Federal Register. That puts the status going into effect next week.

The name alone is a testament to cruel irony.

Lesser prairie chicken.

Makes me want to squawk.

Actually, it ought to make all of us want to cry, because the lesser prairie chicken — a sage grouse that once filled the endless grasslands of Eastern New Mexico and a big hunk of this nation’s southern plains — is little more than a plains fire or hailstorm away from extinction, at least in this state.

The numbers are better elsewhere, but some estimates have the lesser prairie chicken’s numbers in the low four-figures in New Mexico. It could be closer to 500. That’s a funeral notice.

And while that sad possibility is well-known in the conservation community, it’s largely been an eye roll, a shrug, to much of the public.

And for that, I blame, to some extent, the name.

If the species had been named Llano Estacado chicken hawk or Portales passerine — I’m kidding, but anything’s greater than lesser — maybe the bird wouldn’t be the most recent environmental canary in a coal mine.

But that’s what it is.

“It’s a bird that needs wide-open landscapes of grasslands, and in fact, it’s in trouble,” says Wayne Walker, a businessman who has become one of the species’ biggest proponents. “That means there’s a lot of other things in trouble.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and its southwestern regional office based in Albuquerque have listed the lesser prairie chicken (LPC) in New Mexico as “endangered” – and that Endangered Species Act regulation goes into effect on Jan. 24, in just a week.

The ESA is now 50 years old and the law of the land. Oil and gas producers, such renewable energy companies as wind and solar, and transmission companies who bring power to our cities must comply and reduce their impacts on the LPC or face massive fines and potential work stoppages.

There are only about 500 LPCs remaining in New Mexico, down from 1,500 just a year ago, according to species population counts, and dropping tragically from more than 20,000 birds in the mid-1980s. It’s a predictable outcome of overdevelopment and energy extraction without concomitant natural prairie or desert rangeland easements and set-asides. Landowners deserve a market-based rate to protect and restore the areas the LPC and other grassland species need to thrive.

A bird iconic to the American West continued to see its numbers dwindle last year as federal protections for the species were weeks away from going into effect.

The lesser prairie chicken was deemed “endangered” in New Mexico by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last November, meaning the strongest federal restrictions on development in known chicken habitat areas would be imposed.

An endangered status also requires the agency to list lands as “critical habitat” where the species survives and could potentially expand into.

The Fish and Wildlife Service divided the chicken population into two areas: a northern distinct population segment (DPS) covering parts of Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and a southern DPS known as the “shinnery oak prairie” in eastern New Mexico and West Texas.

The southern DPS was listed as endangered, while the northern DPS was given “threatened” status, meaning conditions could soon warrant an endangered listing.

The listing goes into effect Jan. 24, and amid continual declines in lesser prairie chicken populations, threatened by development in the areas where it dwells and continual aridification tied to pollution and subsequent climate change.

Among America’s iconic native birds, the lesser prairie chicken can be especially hard to spot —  hiding behind shrubs, seldom popping out except before sunrise in spring for flamboyant mating dances.

But now it may become Colorado’s first climate casualty.

A painstaking $428,000 state effort to avert extinction by relocating 205 of these chickens from Kansas to Colorado’s southeastern plains is failing, state records show. Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists, and bird experts, blame hotter, drier conditions. Federal authorities have cited climate change as a factor in their decline. CPW data show the relocated chickens decreased from 139 in 2020 to fewer than 90.

Even now that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has granted Endangered Species Act protection — the ecological equivalent of emergency-room life support — bird experts say the future of the lesser prairie chicken and its cousins — the Greater sage grouse, Gunnison sage grouse, and the greater prairie chicken — looks increasingly precarious.

“We’re seeing the lesser prairie chicken as one of the first in the line of many climate casualties,” said Jon Hayes, executive director of the Audubon Society for the southwestern United States.

Audubon Society scientists have estimated that, if climate warming continues unabated, more than 60% of bird species in North America will vanish by the end of the 21st Century.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Nov. 17 that it was listing the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.

Following a review of the best available scientific and commercial information regarding the past, present and future threats, as well as ongoing conservation efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing two Distinct Population Segments of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act. The Southern DPS of the lesser prairie-chicken is being listed as endangered, officials announced. The Northern DPS of the lesser prairie-chicken is being listed as threatened.

The service is also finalizing a section 4(d) rule designed to conserve the Northern DPS of lesser prairie-chicken while allowing greater flexibility for landowners and land managers.

“The lesser prairie-chicken’s decline is a sign our native grasslands and prairies are in peril. These habitats support a diversity of wildlife and are valued for water quality, climate resilience, grazing, hunting and recreation,” said the service’s Southwest Regional Director Amy Lueders. “The service continues to work with stakeholders to develop voluntary conservation agreements that will protect the lesser prairie-chicken and the native grasslands on which it depends while assuring that oil and gas and renewable energy development, ranching, agriculture and other activities continue.”

A lesser prairie chicken on ranchland in the Red Hills of Kansas. Greg Kramos/Fish and Wildlife Service

The Fish and Wildlife Service is listing the lesser prairie chicken for protection under the Endangered Species Act after a yearslong evaluation determined immediate action is needed to save the bird.

FWS announced Thursday that the listing decision outlined in the final rule involves two separate distinct population segments with “fairly drastic” differences in outlook for survival. This takes into account the population numbers and habitat across the bird’s five-state region that includes parts of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas, Clay Nichols, FWS’ lesser prairie chicken coordinator, said during an online briefing with reporters Thursday.

The new rule lists the southern distinct lesser prairie chicken population in eastern New Mexico and the southwest Texas Panhandle as an endangered species. The northern distinct population in the northeast Texas Panhandle, southeast Colorado, south-central Kansas and western Oklahoma is being listed as a threatened species.

Following a rigorous review of the best available scientific and commercial information regarding the past, present and future threats, as well as ongoing conservation efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listing two Distinct Population Segments (DPS) of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Southern DPS of the lesser prairie-chicken is being listed as endangered. The Northern DPS of the lesser prairie-chicken is being listed as threatened. The Service is also finalizing a section 4(d) rule designed to conserve the Northern DPS of lesser prairie-chicken while allowing greater flexibility for landowners and land managers.

“The lesser prairie-chicken’s decline is a sign our native grasslands and prairies are in peril. These habitats support a diversity of wildlife and are valued for water quality, climate resilience, grazing, hunting and recreation,” said the Service’s Southwest Regional Director Amy Lueders. “The Service continues to work with stakeholders to develop voluntary conservation agreements that will protect the lesser prairie-chicken and the native grasslands on which it depends while assuring that oil and gas and renewable energy development, ranching, agriculture and other activities continue.”

The lesser prairie-chicken serves as an indicator for healthy grasslands and prairies – needing large, unfragmented parcels of intact native grasslands to maintain self-sustaining populations. This makes them an important measure of the overall health of America’s grasslands, a treasured and storied landscape.  

Mark Gardiner’s ranch in southwestern Kansas has seen a few changes over the last 130 years it’s been in the family. What began as a 160-acre homestead would eventually swell to more than 48,000 acres of ranchland where Angus cattle can be seen grazing under a seemingly endless sky. But one thing has stayed constant at the Gardiner Angus Ranch: the presence of a certain rare, dancing bird — the Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

“There’s prairie chickens over our entire ranch, and I’ve seen them ever since I was a kid,” Gardiner said. “Fortunately, this is one of the largest and one of the best prairie chicken populations — not only in Kansas, but anywhere.”

It’s no secret that successful, landscape-scale habitat conservation requires private landowner engagement. Wildlife – owned in trust by the state – are in many cases reliant on the habitat stewardship of private landowners to thrive.

During a recent speech in Wyoming, Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the United States Department of Agriculture, emphasized the nature and relationship between farmers, ranchers and land owners to conservation. “We’ve long recognized the importance of working with people to conserve land in a voluntary and incentive-based manner,” he said. “Over the last several decades, we have developed new tools to protect working lands from development and help manage them in ways that benefit wildlife, clean water and the climate – all while ensuring we continue to produce food, fiber and fuel.”

For the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC), his words couldn’t ring more true, and a coalition of landowners has come together to save these birds from a staggering population decline that puts them on the edge of endangered status. The Lesser prairie-chicken Landowner Alliance (LPCLA) is a group of a dozen land owners in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico working with federal agencies to find a path forward on LPC recovery.

Champions of the lesser prairie-chicken are awaiting word whether the rare dancing grouse will be relisted under the Endangered Species Act two months after a final decision was expected.

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — Lesser prairie chickens once numbered in the thousands throughout the American West, thriving on the prairielands of eastern New Mexico and the American West.

But in recent years, the chicken’s numbers declined amid growing development in the oil and gas and agriculture sectors, and conservationists worried the unique bird could be in danger of extinction.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed federal protections for the species last year under the Endangered Species Act, seeking an endangered listing for the bird in southeast New Mexico and West Texas and a threatened listing in the rest of the animal’s range, which extends through Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas.

A species is considered “endangered” by the agency when its extinction is believed imminent, while “threatened” means the animal could soon warrant endangered status. Both result in the federal government developing a recovery plan and setting aside acreage deemed “critical habitat” of the species at risk.

A final decision on the lesser prairie chicken’s listing was expected this month, records show, and it could restrict access to lands needed for the chicken’s recovery and impact some of the region’s biggest industries.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approved LPC Conservation LLC’s habitat conservation plan (HCP) and associated incidental take permit. The HCP is designed to allow for the responsible development of oil and gas in the Great Plains while also contributing to the conservation of the lesser prairie-chicken.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires all incidental take permits (ITPs) to include HCPs that describe the anticipated effects of a proposed taking and how those impacts will be minimized or mitigated.

The HCP will cover oil and gas development across the lesser prairie-chicken’s range in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. LPC Conservation LLC’s HCP will fully offset impacts from enrolled projects while providing regulatory certainty for oil and gas development across its range, should the lesser prairie-chicken become listed under the ESA in the future.

Along with the final HCP, the Service is publishing a final Environmental Assessment (EA) that evaluates the effects of issuing the ITP and addresses comments received during the public comment period. Full implementation of the HCP is expected to potentially affect 500,000 acres of suitable lesser prairie-chicken habitat. Under the plan, industry participants will work with LPC Conservation LLC to ensure projects minimize impacts to the lesser prairie-chicken and mitigation is in place to voluntarily offset their project’s impacts to the species and its habitat. The HCP and ITP will be in effect for 30 years.

Earlier this year, the Service approved LPC Conservation LLC’s HCP and associated incidental take permit for renewable energy development in the Great Plains.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is scheduled to announce its final decision on whether to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as an Endangered Species under the federal Endangered Species Act in June. If FWS chooses to list this species, it would mandate the designation and protection of critical habitat, put criminal penalties in place for harming the bird, and require industry to mitigate any negative impacts they have on the species.

If we have any hope of saving the Lesser Prairie Chicken from extinction, then listing the bird as endangered is essential. While states like New Mexico have worked hard to turn the Lesser Prairie Chicken situation around, unfortunately results matter and, as all ranchers know, you don’t put food on the table with effort. It takes results, and current and past efforts have not delivered them. Since formal nationwide bird monitoring began in the 1960s, Lesser Prairie Chicken populations have declined by 97% across their range. This decline is one of the most precipitous among all bird life in the U.S. and will ultimately lead to extinction if not addressed.

Ensuring the future existence of this bird will come at a cost. In the limited areas where the species remain, they require a wide-open prairie landscape devoid of vertical structures – e.g. trees, power lines, drilling rigs, etc. – with healthy stands of native grass and forbs. Both fossil fuel and renewable energy production are incompatible with the habitat conditions these birds need, as is the overgrazing of livestock – meaning these activities will have to be curtailed in the areas designated as “critical habitat” for the bird.