Greenwire reports on free-market programs to keep lesser prairie chicken off endangered species list

"On the southern Great Plains ... landowners are caught up in a struggle: to keep the Lesser Prairie Chicken off the federal endangered species list."

That's the gist of a story written by April Reese of E&E about the use of "Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances" and other efforts designed to keep the federal government from declaring the animal endangered.

Getting landowners on board with voluntary conservation agreements is crucial to persuading the Fish and Wildlife Service to forego listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken. "We've been hustling to get as many as we can," the story quotes Jeff Bonner, a technical guidance biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

In January, the WGA released a statement from the Governors of five Western states on the federal proposal to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a threatened species. Governors signing the document were John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Sam Brownback (Kan.), Susana Martinez (N.M.), Mary Fallin (Okla.), and Rick Perry (Texas). In brief, the statement said:

"Our states have worked to develop state conservation plans to improve habitat for the species while also taking into account economic development needs. Collectively, our agencies released a GIS mapping tool (the Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool) that identifies the highest priority areas for targeted species conservation. This tool has facilitated our agencies' work together, and with land and mineral owners, to develop a range-wide conservation strategy to ensure that a listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken is not warranted."

The work is urgent: The story notes FWS is expected to decide on whether to list the lesser prairie chicken by the end of September.