‘Habitat Exchange’ Could Keep Oil Flowing While Protecting Wild Prairie Fowl
By RUSSELL GOLD, WALL STREET JOURNAL
Updated July 19, 2013 8:22 p.m. ET
SLAPOUT, Okla.—The rolling prairies around this tiny ranch town in the Oklahoma Panhandle might soon be home to an experiment aimed at preserving the habitat of both football-sized fowl and oil-drilling rigs.
The area occupied by the brownish birds, known as lesser prairie chickens, spans portions of five states but has shrunk so much that the federal government has said it might classify them as threatened or endangered as early as March. Such a listing would complicate companies’ efforts to develop large oil deposits under the grassland where the birds like to nest.
Ranchers, oil firms and environmentalists suggest a ‘habitat exchange’ as the government weighs listing the lesser prairie chicken as endangered. Oklahoma State University
Whether or not the bird is placed on a threatened or endangered species list, ranchers and oil companies, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, are pitching a free-market solution to help both bird and industry thrive: a “habitat exchange.”
The proposal is meant to benefit all parties by creating a “stock exchange” of sorts, said David Festa, vice president of the land, water and wildlife program at the environmental nonprofit. Under the exchange plan, ranchers would generate credits by taking steps to protect the bird’s habitat, such as tearing out invasive juniper trees or letting land revert to grassland.
To drill new wells or build roads, oil companies would offset the impact on the chickens’ habitat by purchasing these credits at auctions.
“Talking to ranchers, they say, ‘There is a lot we can do, but why would we do that for free?’ ” Mr. Festa said.
Work on setting up the exchange has been quietly under way for several months. One participant, Chevron Corp. CVX -1.27% , said it likes the idea of a market-based system that “allows creative solutions that benefit both landowners and the lesser prairie chicken.” Other companies, including BP BP.LN +0.86% PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -1.47% andChesapeake Energy Corp. CHK -1.49% , also have participated in meetings to develop the exchange.
The plan—which must be approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department—would be the biggest effort to date to use a “cap-and-trade” approach to habitat preservation. A similar exchange was first tried in central Texas about a decade ago to protect the golden-cheeked warbler, and more recently with a small lizard in west Texas. But the lesser prairie chicken’s habitat spans Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Not everyone backs the idea. “The oil and gas industry will be the main funder because they are the main destroyer of habitat,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “Obviously, if it were up to us, we would rather not see the habitat be destroyed at all.”
Some regional wildlife officials argue the lesser prairie chicken population is stable and doesn’t deserve special protection—and federal steps to protect the bird could slow oil and gas development, an economic boost to the area.
The five states where the chickens live have proposed a different plan to the federal government and oppose putting the bird on any endangered or threatened species list. The states haven’t taken a position on the habitat exchange. Bill Van Pelt, grassland coordinator for the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, said the states want to “get ahead of this and create a plan that would allow conservation to go forward.” The group estimates the lesser-prairie-chicken population totaled about 37,000 last year.
The federal government has said the bird faces an uncertain future because of declining habitat size; a spokeswoman for the Interior Department declined to comment, citing the pending decision.
Much of the chickens’ habitat is on private land, owned and worked by cattlemen like Alan Jett, whose family’s ranch is outside Slapout, about 185 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
Mr. Jett said he would prefer the federal government didn’t add the prairie chicken to the endangered species list, adding he has observed that the birds can nest and mate in areas with moderate industrial activity.
Parking his pickup truck on a slight rise, a gas pipeline behind him and an old oil well ahead, he said birds meet here every year for an elaborate courtship ritual called a lek. “I’ve seen chickens lekking right around that pipeline,” he said.
But if the federal government does list the chicken, he said he and other cattle ranchers would support a habitat exchange. “If there is money in this work that would give us ranchers the ability to run fewer cows,” he said, “I’ll be the first in line.”
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
The federal government could approve the proposed habitat-exchange program for the lesser prairie chicken without putting the bird on a threatened or endangered species list. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the exchange first required a federal listing for the bird. In addition, the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies hasn’t taken a position on the exchange program. In saying that his group wants to “get ahead of this and create a plan that would allow conservation to go forward,” Bill Van Pelt, grassland coordinator for the association, was referring to a plan from his group, not the proposed exchange.