Energy firms urged to join new LPC conservation bank

There’s a new bank in the Permian Basin. But its currency is land, not money.

Conservation banks that aim to help preserve the lesser prairie chicken while also allowing for responsible development of energy have received approval from the US Fish & Wildlife Service as part of a range-wide habitat conservation plan.

FILE - This March 2007 file photo provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows a male lesser prairie chicken in a mating stature in the Texas panhandle. Organizers of a new conservation bank to preserve the bird is urging oil and gas companies to sign on.

“We have two plans — one for renewable energy and one for oil and gas,” said Wayne Walker, a rancher in the San Angelo-Ozona area while visiting Midland to encourage participation from oil and gas companies.

“Renewable companies are lining up to participate; we need similar interest from oil and gas,” he continued.

The Lone Star Award-winning rancher said he believes the program will not only provide legal assurances to the industry as it works to develop resources but will also help the birds.

The plan will give energy producers legal assurances to develop their resources while also contributing to the main conservation goals for the bird: Securing conservation strongholds and habitat restoration. Participants can buy protections for priority habitat strongholds secured by conservation banks and potentially other mitigation options.

In order to participate in the conservation bank program, ranchers have to cut their grazing rates to keep grass cover suitable for the prairie chicken’s use. This means cattle have to be moved more frequently and more land is required to feed their herds, all of which increases their operations’ costs. Moreover, ranchers also have to permanently protect their ranches using conservation easements, permanently removing development rights. This includes surface uses like wind and solar farms, commercial and residential buildings or farming.

Walker called it a market-based model that pays market rates for conservation easements.

“The only way out of this mess is to help landowners and the bird,” said Walker. “We have to pay enough for ranchers to reduce their grazing rates and move their herds and also turn away the solar, wind and oil and gas development guys who show up. They can keep ranching and serve the birds.”

The hurdle to acceptance, particularly from oil and gas companies, is their participation in legacy conservation plans, such as the one administered by the Western Alliance of Fish and Wildlife Agencies until its permit was revoked by the FWS.

“These are programs heavily supported by oil and gas and they’re cheaper than us,” acknowledged Walker. “Cheap doesn’t always translate to good. The money hasn’t been enough to get the right conservation plan in the right place.”

Because the conservation bank already has FWS approval, Walker said his conservation bank can find the landowners with land in or near prime lesser prairie chicken habitat. “We can then go to the FWS, tell them their requirements have been met and approve, we bank the credits and sell the credits so companies are compliant. It’s a private capital approach.”

As a bonus, he said participating in the conservation bank lets companies demonstrate their commitment to corporate Environmental Social and Governance objectives.

The bird needs 25,000 contiguous acres to in order to have a viable population and Walker said the immediate goal is to stabilize its population at 1 to 5% of its peak and then grow it back.

The HCP will be administered by LPC Conservation LLC, a special purpose entity owned by Common Ground Capital LLC of Oklahoma City, Restoration Systems of Raleigh, North Carolina, RiverBank Conservation of Austin, and a global private investment firm.