WASHINGTON— The Trump administration issued its final decision today to strip federal Endangered Species Act protection from the imperiled lesser prairie chicken. The decision eliminates the birds’ safeguards against oil and gas development and other threats.
“It’s shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Lesser prairie chickens may be lost forever without Endangered Species Act protections. We’re fighting this foolish decision to make sure they get them.”
In September the Center and the Texas Campaign for the Environment filed an appeal challenging a Texas court’s decision that cleared the way to strip the birds’ federal protections.
The iconic grassland birds, known for their elaborate mating dances, finally received Endangered Species Act protection in 2022 after nearly 30 years of agency delay and litigation. The Texas and New Mexico population was listed as endangered; a separate northern population in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado was listed as threatened.
Today’s decision officially removes federal protections from all populations of lesser prairie chickens.
The lesser prairie chicken’s decline to a fraction of its original numbers is the result of the degradation and fragmentation of the southern Great Plains. Oil and gas drilling, conversion to crops, cattle grazing, the raising of powerlines and telephone poles, and the incursion of woodlands — as well as drought and high temperatures linked to global warming — all harm the bird.
Lesser prairie chickens instinctively stay far from vertical structures, including drilling rigs, powerlines and telephone poles that are used as perches by raptors that prey on them. Construction of any of these structures results in a much greater loss of habitat than from the immediate physical footprint.
“The lesser prairie chickens are fascinating birds supremely adapted to the southern Great Plains and mixed grasslands of the Southwest,” said Rylander. “They help disperse the seeds they eat, and they sustain carnivores and raptors. Prairie chickens have inherent value simply as part of the rich fabric of animal life. The birds’ unique dance and colorful feathers are all part of iconic American landscapes. We’ve been fighting for decades to protect these birds because they’re special and they have a right to exist.”
The ongoing legal appeal challenges both the Texas court’s denial of the groups’ right to intervene in the case and the final order vacating the listing rule to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Background
The Center’s predecessor organization, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, petitioned to list the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species in 1995.
In 2014, after lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally listed lesser prairie chicken as threatened. But the following year, the oil and gas industry successfully challenged the listing in Midland, Texas, based on a poorly implemented and largely ineffective conservation agreement.
In 2016 the Center and its allies petitioned for emergency protections for lesser prairie chickens. A subsequent lawsuit by the Center and allies, and comments submitted in April 2021, led to a final rule in 2022 listing two distinct population segments of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
