Judge strips prairie chicken protection

A federal judge in Midland last Tuesday removed protections for the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a rare bird that played a role in a transmission line being rerouted around Donley County five years ago.

The ruling strips the bird of its “threatened” listing by the US Fish & Wildlife Service under the federal Endangered Species Act.

In his written decision, US District Judge Robert A. Junell found that the agency’s “analysis was neither ‘rigorous’ nor valid as FWS failed to consider important questions and material information necessary to make a proper … evaluation.”

The lesser prairie chicken has been the subject of much debate over the past two decades and was one element in the loss of millions of dollars in economic development in Donley County in 2010.

Cross Texas Transmission had proposed a 15-mile transmission line through the county with a construction value estimated at $22.5 million, but landowners and other interested parties protested the plan citing concerns about the habitat of the Lesser Prairie Chicken, the effects on wetlands and other ecologically sensitive features, possible damage to ancient fossil beds, and the visual impact of the lines. The Texas Public Utilities Commission then approved an alternate route for the transmission line that took it around Donley County.

Following the species being listed as “threatened” last year by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and four counties in New Mexico sued the government over the bird’s status.

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) on Thursday applauded Junell’s decision to overturn the listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.

“Judge Junell’s decision to vacate the threatened listing of the lesser prairie chicken is a major victory for ranchers and landowners across the country,” said TSCRA President Pete Bonds. “It is apparent that the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to consider the many state conservation efforts before listing the prairie chicken as threatened.”

Conservationists were alarmed by the court’s ruling last week, and the Center for Biological Diversity’s Noah Greenwald said the lesser prairie chicken was first identified as needing protection in 1995 but that the petroleum had done nothing to protect it until regulations were proposed.

“This decision turns the Endangered Species Act on its head by concluding the Fish and Wildlife Service should have given the benefit of the doubt to the oil and gas industry, rather than a species that has seen its habitat and populations vanish,” Greenwald said.

But agriculture and petroleum interests praised the ruling and said they would continue to fight overreaching federal regulations.

“The administration should realize by now that ranchers are the best stewards of our nation’s land, and they have proven their ability to successfully implement their own conservation practices,” Bonds said.