News & Press

ADRIAN HEDDEN / CARLSBAD CURRENT-ARGUS Feb 21, 2022

CARLSBAD – Oil and gas companies could play a key role in saving a nearly extinct native bird species in southeast New Mexico.

That’s why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved plans developed by conservation firms. The plans are specific to extraction operators that would specify actions they could take to prevent impacts on the lesser prairie chicken habitat in eastern New Mexico and West Texas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service last year proposed listing the prairie chicken as endangered in its southern distinct population segment, or DPS, which is in New Mexico and West Texas. A threatened listing was proposed for the northern DPS in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and the northern Texas panhandle.

Endangered listings unlock the strongest federal protection measures when a species’ extinction is viewed by the Fish and Wildlife Service as imminent, while a threatened status means a species could soon become endangered.

Along with protecting bird populations, viewed to be as low as 1,500 in the chicken’s southern DPS, the Fish and Wildlife Service is also tasked with setting aside lands that could be used as habitat for recovery.

The lesser priaire chicken population was once believed to be in the millions across all five states.

To begin the work of recovering the bird to its former numbers, two habitat recovery plans were released by the federal government: one tailored to the renewable energy sector last year, and another published for the oil and gas industry Feb. 11, starting a 30-day public comment period.

Read entire article here

Adrian Hedden Carlsbad Current-Argus Feb 15, 2022

Oil and gas companies could play a key role in saving a nearly-extinct native bird species in southeast New Mexico.

That’s why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a plan specific to extraction operators that would specify actions they could take to prevent impacts to lesser prairie chicken (LPC) habitat in eastern New Mexico and portions of West Texas.

The service last year proposed listing the prairie chicken as endangered in its southern distinct population segment (DPS), which is in New Mexico and West Texas, while the northern DPS in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and the northern Texas panhandle was proposed for a threatened listing.

Endangered listings unlock the strongest federal protection measures when a species’ extinction is viewed by the service as imminent while a threatened status means a species could soon become endangered.

Along with protecting bird populations, viewed to be as low as 1,500 in the chicken’s southern DPS, the Service is also tasked with setting aside lands that could be used as habitat for recovery.

That population was once believed to be in the millions across all five states.

To begin the work of recovering the bird to its former numbers, two habitat recovery plans were released by federal government: one tailored to the renewable energy sector last year and another published for the oil and gas industry Feb. 11, starting a 30-day public comment period. 

Read entire article here

By: Adam D. Young Lubbock Avalanche-Journal Feb 10, 2022

Federal wildlife officials are moving forward in their process to pursue further protections of the lesser prairie-chicken, with potential implications on the region’s oil and gas industry.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on a draft habitat conservation plan (HCP) and draft environmental assessment covering potential impacts to the lesser prairie-chicken from oil and gas development in West Texas and across much of the Great Plains, the agency announced in a news release Thursday.

This comes amid renewed federal efforts to list the lesser prairie-chicken in the Endangered Species Act. The lesser prairie-chicken’s natural habitat includes the Permian Basin, South Plains and Panhandle regions, along with a wide swatch of the central U.S.

The HCP would cover all activities associated with oil and gas development across the lesser prairie-chicken’s range in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, according to a news release from the FWS.

LPC Conservation, LLC has prepared the proposed plan in support of an application for an incidental take permit for the lesser prairie-chicken.

The HCP for the lesser prairie-chicken is a planning document designed to promote the bird’s conservation while providing regulatory certainty for oil and gas development across its range, should it become listed under the Endangered Species Act in the future. Under the plan, industry participants will work with LPC Conservation, LLC, the permit administrator, to purchase Service-approved mitigation to offset their project’s impacts to the lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat on a voluntary basis. 

“This plan will result in strategic conservation for the lesser prairie-chicken by offsetting impacts from enrolled oil and gas development,” Amy Lueders, Service Southwest Regional Director, said in a statement. “Collaborations like this play a vital role in conserving imperiled species and their habitats while providing needed certainty to support development.”

Read entire article here

By Adrian Hedden Carlsbad Current-Argus Dec 10, 2021

 

 

A plan to recover an imperiled desert fowl was approved by the federal government this week to allow development of lands in eastern New Mexico while also protecting the species from extinction.

If put to use, conservationists hope the approved habitat conservation plan (HCP) could restore populations of the lesser prairie chicken (LPC) which was once believed to number in the hundreds of thousands but recent data show dwindled recently as low as 1,500 birds in New Mexico.

Oklahoma-based conservation bank LPC Conservation authored the plan tailored to renewable energy, transmission and communication tower developments and what owner can do to build and operate such facilities while protecting the chicken.

It would insulate landowners from litigation, transferring liability to LPC Conservation.  

The plan was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, per a Dec. 2 announcement, and it could be enacted immediately.

Conservation banks are designed to set aside lands for wildlife conservation by working with private landowners and offering them “market-based” rates to purchase the land and set it aside as a stronghold for animals like the lesser prairie chicken.

 

Read entire article here

State wildlife programs are preferable to federal Endangered Species Act intervention, but a market solution is preferable to both.

Relying on state biologists in the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (Wafwa) to protect the lesser prairie chicken hasn’t worked (“Biden’s Prairie Chicken Fillet,” Review & Outlook, June 23).

Wall Street Journal July 5, 2021

Relying on state biologists in the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (Wafwa) to protect the lesser prairie chicken hasn’t worked (“Biden’s Prairie Chicken Fillet,” Review & Outlook, June 23).

State wildlife programs are preferable to federal Endangered Species Act intervention, but a market solution is preferable to both. There is a market solution for the lesser prairie chicken, yet the state agencies quashed it. We as mitigation bankers paid a negotiated price to landowners with the most important habitat and secured more than half the habitat conservation goal in two years—eight ahead of schedule. Wafwa guessed at fair market prices, wasted a good deal of the money and made little progress toward its conservation goals.

The agencies relied on committees of biologists to make real-estate transactions requiring land and business expertise they don’t possess. Energy companies are now facing a total loss on the $60 million they contributed.

When it came time, the federal government did not have much choice on the ESA listing. The bird population is extremely low—only 5,000 lesser prairie chickens remain in eastern New Mexico and West Texas—and the Wafwa program has failed.

Read entire article here

Published 6/28/2021 High Plains Journal

https://www.hpj.com/opinion/gambling-with-species-extinction/article_9deeb806-d5bf-11eb-81dd-07d7dacb3a55.html

It’s a gambler’s life to turn a losing proposition into a false sense of victory. Send one to the blackjack table with $1,000; they lose $900, win back $100, and declare they’ve won.

Such it is with lesser prairie-chicken, the enduring, iconic wild grouse of the southern Great Plains prairies. Their populations have been reduced by 90% from as recently as the 1960s, and with a recent positive bump of maybe 5% after a couple years with improved rainfall we have some saying: “We’re good!” We are not good, as the recent proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the chicken under the Endangered Species Act indicates.

June 13th, 2021 The Oaklahoman

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/opinion/2021/06/13/opinion-wafwa-failed-state-bureaucracy-lets-move-on/7606810002/

I am a lifelong entrepreneur who grew up in the oil and gas business — my father spent his career drilling wells in the southern plains. I also am a rancher who knows the pressures of modern-day ranching.

The proposed “endangered” and “threatened” listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken is a sad but predictable result that could have been avoided. It was supposed to be prevented by a regional state bureaucracy — the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies — that collected $60 million from oil and gas and accomplished very little in terms of conservation.

But onerous penalties under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) will not help the bird either. We need positive, market-based incentives provided by the private sector under the ESA. There is still a chance for ranchers to help save the bird, protect their own property rights and get paid a market price for their good stewardship.

The best approach now is to get real conservation on the ground, in the right place, that pays a fair market price to landowners for their stewardship past and future. And, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has to “count” these habitat conservation plans.

A final listing decision next year would penalize landowners. A separate action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could also put the market-based incentive plan in motion. The incentive is simple: energy developers can protect themselves from ESA listings and penalties by paying landowners a market price to protect and recover the Lesser Prairie Chicken under a new habitat conservation plan (HCP) program under final review with the USFWS.

This incentive played a lead role in getting the American Burying Beetle down listed just last year right here in Oklahoma.

As a rancher with my own award-winning family ranch, recently earning the Lone Star award for conservation in West Texas and part owner of a ranch in eastern Oklahoma, I understand the pressures of a federal ESA listing on private land —especially without market-based compensation.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can jumpstart the incentive approach by allowing WAFWA to use the remaining $20 million to buy these private credits as compensation for failure. Or, oil and gas can ask for their money back, and then spend it on a reliable solution!

There is an impact mitigation industry out there of people like me who want to see this bird thrive and not become extinct. The best LPC habitat sites, and there are very few of them left, are with private ranches and these ranchers want to deal with private sector minded people like me, not a five state bureaucracy. The WAFWA program was a failed experiment. The punitive ESA approach is a well-known dead end.  Let’s work together now with private sector interests in oil and gas and private conservation banks, and our federal agencies — for responsible and effective species conservation.

It’s the only way we are going to turn this situation around.

June 22nd, 2021 Located on the Wall Street Journal by The Editorial Board

Why did the lesser prairie chicken cross the road? Apparently to shut down oil and gas development. Witness how the Biden Administration is reviving an Obama Administration effort to list the member of the grouse family under the Endangered Species Act to restrict energy development.

Late last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed a regulation to list the lesser prairie chicken as either threatened or endangered, depending on the region. More than 95% of the lesser prairie chicken’s range falls on private property across Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Its range also overlaps with the Permian Basin—the most productive oil-and-gas shale field in the U.S. Green groups have for years used the Endangered Species Act as a way to restrict land development.

In 2015 a federal judge blocked the Obama prairie chicken endangered listing because the Administration had not sufficiently considered alternatives to conserve bird habitat. Businesses and state and federal regulators had already agreed to a plan to support conservation efforts, which gave landowners flexibility to manage their property and compensated them for improving the bird’s habitat.

To continue reading: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-prairie-chicken-fillet-11624401383

The Editorial Board June 22, 2021

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.  

Read entire article here

By Mark Gardiner and Stacy Hoeme May 28th, 2021

As ranchers from Kansas, we are here to tell you that the proposed listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken as “threatened” spells trouble for our property rights.

It complicates or eliminates the chance to use our pastures and fields for almost everything — from ranching to farming to oil extraction, even renewable energy. It seems the only choice we will be left with is leaving the Lesser Prairie Chicken to fend for itself.

The problem is that, to date, government doesn’t pay well enough for our ranches to stay in conservation.

Last time the Lesser Prairie Chicken was listed, our state governments had a “solution” that was billed as a way for us to keep ranching, save the Lesser Prairie Chicken and even make some money.

Well, folks, out here in the High Plains we know government bureaucracy and failed government programs when we see them. Such was the case with the Western Alliance of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Lesser Prairie Chicken conservation and easement program.

WAFWA failed to deliver on-the-ground conservation and wasted $40M dollars of precious industry money along the way. We won’t belabor the point, but we wouldn’t be writing this if WAFWA’s program was successful. Because now the Lesser Prairie Chicken is proposed for relisting.

To continue reading: https://www.cjonline.com/story/opinion/2021/05/28/lesser-prairie-chicken-needs-real-solutions-government-isnt-giving-kansas-ranchers-lek-threatened/7484448002/

By Mack Kizer May 28th, 2021

As ranchers from New Mexico, Texas and Kansas, we are here to tell you the proposed listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken spells trouble for our property rights. It complicates or eliminates the chance to use our pastures and fields for almost everything – from ranching to farming to oil extraction, even renewable energy. It seems the only choice we will be left with is leaving the LPC to fend for itself. The problem is that, to date, government doesn’t pay well enough for our ranches to stay in conservation.

Last time the LPC was listed, our state governments had a “solution” billed as a way for us to keep ranching, save the LPC and even make some money. Well folks, out here in the High Plains we know government bureaucracy and failed government programs when we see them. Such was the case with the Western Alliance of Fish and Wildlife Agencies – WAFWA – LPC conservation and easement program. WAFWA failed to deliver on-the-ground conservation and wasted $40 million of precious industry money along the way. We won’t belabor the point, but we wouldn’t be writing this if WAFWA’s program was successful. Because now the LPC is proposed for relisting. It’s now clear the LPC needs real solutions, and us ranchers need real solutions, too.

The Endangered Species Act now proposes that the Lesser Prairie Chicken be listed as endangered in New Mexico and West Texas, where there are fewer than 6,000, and threatened in Kansas where there are fewer than 20,000. Truth be told, these levels are really near to extinction.

The Kizer Ranch in Pep, N.M., has set aside 10,000 acres for a permanent easement for LPC through a private-sector program called “conservation banking.” Basically, we are paid a market price to permanently protect intact rangelands along with our neighbors, including the Nature Conservancy’s Smoky Valley Ranch nearby. In Yoakum County, Texas, Holgate Land & Cattle and Williams Ranch & Mineral have set aside 3,000 acres adjoining Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Yoakum Dunes Wildlife Management Area.

Likewise, the Hoeme Family HRC ranch in Gove County, Kansas, has set aside 9,000 acres for native habitat on the prairie – and that is world-renowned as LPC mating grounds. This lek – aggregation of male animals – has the most dense population of birds per acre anywhere. The Gardiner family Angus Ranch in Ashland, Kansas, has over 20,000 acres of land ready for these same market-based conservation easements.

 

https://www.abqjournal.com/2394887/we-can-save-lesser-prairie-chicken-and-ranching.html

May 26th, 2021

After a thorough review of the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list two distinct population segments (DPS) of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service is requesting comments or information from the public, governmental agencies, the scientific community, industry, or any other interested parties concerning this proposed rule.  The lesser prairie-chicken currently occupies a five-state range that includes Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado and faces a number of threats, including, modification, degradation and fragmentation of its habitat.

The Service’s scientific review of past, present and future threats to the lesser prairie-chicken and ongoing conservation efforts found the Southern DPS is in danger of extinction, and the Northern DPS is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the Service proposes to list the Southern DPS as endangered under the ESA and the Northern DPS as threatened with a 4(d) rule that tailors protections.

“The loss of America’s native grasslands and prairies of the southern Great Plains has resulted in steep declines for the lesser prairie-chicken and other grassland birds,” said Service Regional Director Amy Lueders. “For more than two decades, the Service has supported and encouraged our partners’ voluntary efforts to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken. Together, we have made great strides in conserving key habitat and raising awareness about threats to the lesser prairie-chicken, but we still have much work to do to ensure we have viable lesser prairie-chicken populations. The Service will continue to closely partner with diverse stakeholders across the lesser prairie-chicken’s range to restore this iconic species.”

The Southern DPS encompasses lesser prairie-chicken populations in eastern New Mexico and across the southwest Texas Panhandle. Habitat in this DPS is comprised largely of shinnery oak prairie. The Northern DPS encompasses lesser prairie-chicken populations in southeastern Colorado, southcentral to southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma and the northeast Texas Panhandle. This DPS includes the lesser prairie-chicken’s short-grass, mixed-grass and sand sagebrush ecoregions.

The Service is proposing a rule under the ESA’s Section 4(d) for the Northern DPS that would tailor protections for the bird. The 4(d) rule proposed for the Northern DPS would except any “take” of the bird associated with the continuation of routine agricultural practices or the implementation of prescribed fire. The ESA defines take as, “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct.”

The lesser prairie-chicken is a species of prairie grouse commonly recognized for its colorful spring mating display and stout build. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, its population has declined, due largely to habitat loss and fragmentation, across the southern Great Plains. Aerial survey results from 2012 through 2020 estimate a five-year average lesser prairie-chicken population of 27,384 across the five-state region. It is estimated that lesser prairie-chicken habitat has diminished across its historical range by about 90 percent.

The Service continues to work with partners and private landowners to develop voluntary conservation agreements that will protect the lesser prairie-chicken and the native grasslands on which it depends, while assuring that ranching, agriculture and other activities can continue regardless of whether the species is listed. To date, millions of acres of land have been enrolled in voluntary conservation measures across the lesser prairie-chicken’s range.

The Service’s peer-reviewed species status assessment provides a biological risk assessment on the threats and conservation efforts effecting the lesser prairie-chicken and evaluates its current condition. It also examines its biological status under varying plausible future conditions, incorporating the implications of future threats and conservation actions. According to the assessment, habitat loss and fragmentation are expected to continue, even when accounting for ongoing and future conservation efforts, which will result in continued declines across the species’ range.

The Service has determined that the designation of critical habitat for the lesser prairie-chicken is prudent, but not determinable at this time. We will work with states and other partners to acquire the complex information needed to make a critical habitat determination.

The lesser prairie-chicken became a candidate for listing under the ESA in 1998 and was listed as a threatened species in 2014. The listing was vacated in 2015 following a lawsuit. In September 2016, the Service received a new petition to list the lesser prairie-chicken as endangered, and in November 2016 made a substantial 90-day petition finding that listing may be warranted.

The Service submitted the draft rule to the Federal Register today. The Service is requesting comments or information from the public, government agencies, the scientific community, industry, or any other interested parties concerning this proposed rule once it publishes in the Federal Register. Comments must be received within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register. Information on how to submit comments will be available at www.regulations.gov by searching under docket number FWS–R2–ES–2021–0015. Information on how to request a hearing is also included in the Federal Register notice.

The Service will hold two public hearings to gather public comments on the listing proposal. We will hold a public informational session on July 8, 2021 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Central Time, followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. To register for this hearing, please visit: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvce6tqj0pE9R9F2LsoQFVjNRv8kooxeKJ. On July 14, 2021 we will hold a second public informational session from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Central Time, followed by a public hearing from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. To register for this hearing, please visit: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwrfu-hqzoiG9I2Yr2hqxLpPxSu9YrLZzu5.

For more information, please visit https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/LPC.html.

The Wall Street Journal May 22nd, 2021

After years of intermittent excitement and fizzled expectations, environmental-oriented investing is no longer just a niche interest.

Some of the world’s biggest companies and deepest-pocketed investors are lining up trillions of dollars to finance a shift away from fossil fuels.

Assets in investment funds focused partly on the environment reached almost $2 trillion globally in the first quarter, more than tripling in three years. Investors are putting $3 billion a day into these funds. More than $5 billion worth of bonds and loans designed to fund green initiatives are now issued every day. The two biggest U.S. banks pledged $4 trillion in climate-oriented financing over the next decade.

“We’ve reached the tipping point and beyond,” said James Chapman, chief financial officer at Dominion Energy Inc., one of the country’s biggest utilities. Dominion, which has begun issuing green bonds, is planning to spend $26 billion or more on clean energy such as wind and solar in the next five years.

After years of intermittent excitement followed by fizzled expectations, green finance is now looking less like the niche interest of socially conscious investors and more like a sustainable gold rush. Driven by surging valuations for electric-vehicle companies such as Tesla Inc. and startup battery producers, banks and investors are betting the transition from fossil fuels is here to stay, and that they can make money by getting behind it, further entrenching the shift.

To continue reading: https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-finance-goes-mainstream-lining-up-trillions-behind-global-energy-transition-11621656039

Scott County Record May 20th, 2021

Even those with good intentions may not recognize the most obvious solutions.

Or worse yet, realize when current strategies are failing.

That’s the argument being made by a private group which says a government-based approach to expand the population and habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken in Western Kansas and across a five-state area has fallen well short of its goals.

As a result, the LPC could be reclassified as a threatened or endangered species which will draw criticism from landowners, energy companies and other economic interests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently accepting public comments which could determine later this year how the LPC is listed.

To view the whole article, please click here:

https://www.scottcountyrecord.com/news/threatened-or-endangered

By: Katherine Blunt May 16th, 2021

Vistra Corp. owns 36 natural-gas power plants, one of America’s largest fleets. It doesn’t plan to buy or build any more.

Instead, Vistra intends to invest more than $1 billion in solar farms and battery storage units in Texas and California as it tries to transform its business to survive in an electricity industry being reshaped by new technology.

“I’m hellbent on not becoming the next Blockbuster Video, ” said Vistra Chief Executive Curt Morgan. “I’m not going to sit back and watch this legacy business dwindle and not participate.”

A decade ago, natural gas displaced coal as America’s top electric-power source, as fracking unlocked cheap quantities of the fuel. Now, in quick succession, natural gas finds itself threatened with the same kind of disruption, only this time from cost-effective batteries charged with wind and solar energy.

Natural-gas-fired electricity represented 38% of U.S. generation in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, and it supplies round-the-clock electricity as well as bursts during peak demand. Wind and solar generators have gained substantial market share, and as battery costs fall, batteries paired with that green power are beginning to step into those roles by storing inexpensive green energy and discharging it after the sun falls or the wind dies.

Battery storage remains less than 1% of America’s electricity market and so far draws power principally from solar generators, whose output is fairly predictable and easier to augment with storage. But the combination of batteries and renewable energy is threatening to upend billions of dollars in natural-gas investments, raising concerns about whether power plants built in the past 10 years—financed with the expectation that they would run for decades—will become “stranded assets,” facilities that retire before they pay for themselves.

Across the country, much of the growth in renewable energy to date has been driven by state mandates that have required utilities to procure certain amounts of green power, and by federal tax incentives that have made wind and solar more economically competitive.

But renewables have become increasingly cost-competitive without subsidies in recent years, spurring more companies to voluntarily cut carbon emissions by investing in wind and solar power at the expense of that generated from fossil fuels. And the specter of more state and federal regulations to address climate change is accelerating the trend.

President Biden is proposing to extend renewable-energy tax credits to stand-alone battery projects—installations that aren’t part of a generating facility—as part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, which could add fuel to an already booming market for energy storage.

 

To continue reading : https://www.wsj.com/articles/batteries-challenge-natural-gas-elecric-power-generation-11620236583

May 13th, 2021

Finding a solution to provide reliable habitat for lesser prairie-chickens while balancing the interests of farmers and ranchers has gained traction from advocates who believe a win-win can occur with a market-based approach to pay landowners for easements to benefit the lesser prairie-chicken.

Wayne Walker, CEO of Common Ground Capital LLC, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who is familiar with farming and ranching operations as he and his brothers own a west Texas agricultural operation, wants to provide private sector solutions for species mitigation programs to work with ranchers and landowners to preserve and restore habitat. The goal is to get acres certified with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and sell credits to energy developers to offset impacts to bird’s habitat. Walker said the credits not only help energy developers who purchase the credit by providing them coverage under the Endangered Species Act if the LPC is listed and helps with the species because it ensures long-term habitat protection and restoration in the areas where the bird needs it most.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has published a proposed range-wide habitat conservation plan for public comment that closes on May 14 and that takes into account the needs for wind, solar, electric transmission and distributions lines and communication towers. It allows for a market-based option versus conventional pre-determined payments under existing conservation programs.

By: Andy McGlashen Associate Editor, Audubon Magazine May 5th, 2021

A little more than a decade ago, wildlife biologist Blake Grisham and colleagues detected a striking pattern among Lesser Prairie-Chickens nesting on the high plains of New Mexico and Texas: Their chance of successfully hatching chicks falls by 10 percent every half-hour the nest is exposed to temperatures above 93 degrees Fahrenheit. During one brutally hot spring, when the mercury reached triple digits several days in a row, Grisham watched some prairie-chicken hens stubbornly sit on their eggs, while others gave up and left. “The ones that abandoned their nests were the winners,” says Grisham, now an associate professor at Texas Tech University. “The eggs were basically cooked.”

Lesser Prairie-Chickens are tough birds that evolved to handle harsh weather. They’ve always endured heat waves and droughts, their numbers sometimes tumbling as a result. But the birds, a type of ground-dwelling grouse, were numerous—perhaps 2 million strong before European settlement—and they occupied a vast area of the southern Great Plains. Given a few years of decent rainfall and milder temperatures, they’d bounce back.

Today, however, only around 34,000 Lesser Prairie-Chickens remain, spread across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. They’ve lost 84 percent of their original habitat, much of it converted to croplands, oil and gas fields, wind farms, and other types of development. What remains is largely unprotected—95 percent of it is private land—and is expected to become intolerably hot and dry due to climate change, increasing the likelihood of nest failures like what Grisham witnessed. “My fear,” he says, “is that we’re getting to the breaking point of where the species can’t keep up with our actions.”

To continue reading: https://www.audubon.org/news/endangered-species-deadline-looms-lesser-prairie-chicken