WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday it is placing a grassland grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken on a list of threatened species, a move that could affect gas and oil drilling, wind farms and other activities in five central and Southwestern states.
The decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service is a step below “endangered” status and allows for more flexibility in how protections for the bird will be carried out under the Endangered Species Act.
Dan Ashe, the agency’s director, said he knows the decision will be unpopular with governors in the five affected states – Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico – but said the agency was following the best science available.
“The lesser prairie-chicken is in dire straits,” Ashe said in an interview. “The bird is in decline and has been in decline for more than a decade.”
The prairie chicken, a type of grouse known for its colorful neck plume and stout build, has lost more than 80 percent of its traditional habitat, mostly because of human activity such as gas and oil drilling, ranching and construction of power lines and wind turbines, Ashe said. The bird, which weighs from 1½ to 2 pounds, also has been severely impacted by the region’s ongoing drought.
Biologists say a major problem is that prairie chickens fear tall structures, where predators such as hawks can perch and spot them. Wind turbines, electricity transmission towers and drilling rigs are generally the tallest objects on the plains.
Last year, the prairie chicken’s population across the five states declined to fewer than 18,000 birds.
A conservation plan adopted by the five states has a goal of increasing the population to 67,000 birds.
While the birds are not crucial to the ecosystem, their presence and population provide a measure of the health of grasslands and prairies. More than 80 percent of the bird’s habitat is on private land.
Gas and oil companies have said potential new regulations would impede their operations and would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in gas and oil development in one of the country’s most prolific basins, the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico.
Fish and Wildlife officials had refused nearly two years ago to list the species as threatened, and efforts across the region have brought about conservation agreements and habitat-protection plans from landowners, the gas and oil industry and those aiming to increase the prairie chicken’s numbers.
The listing decision, which will take effect around May 1, includes a special rule that Ashe said will allow officials and private landowners in the five affected states to manage conservation efforts. The rule, which Ashe called unprecedented, specifies that activities such as gas and oil drilling and utility line maintenance that are covered under a five-state conservation plan adopted last year will be allowed to continue.
The plan, developed by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, establishes that conservation practices carried out through usual agricultural and energy development are not subject to further regulation under the Endangered Species Act.
Gov. John Hickenlooper and governors of four other affected states opposed listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act.
