The federal government’s removal of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken from a federal protection list under the Endangered Species Act last week was welcomed by the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB). But concerns remain that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may pursue listing the bird a second time.
“Responding to this court ruling by removing the bird from the Federal List does not mean we are walking away from efforts to conserve the Lesser Prairie-Chicken. Far from it,” Dan Ashe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director, told the AP.
Texas and four other states worked to keep the bird off the list by organizing their own conservation program that offered economic incentives to landowners and companies that set aside land.
In an interview with the TFB Radio Network, Gene Richardson, TFB director of Commodity and Regulatory Activities, explained most farmers and ranchers like to have wildlife in conjunction with their farming and ranching operations. But the incentives from the voluntary conservation program may have been inefficient.
“I will tell you that there were a lot of people lined up ready to get in and be involved in this mitigation and do conservation on the ground on their properties,” Richardson said. “The program that was in place, a lot of them did not qualify. It’s a shame because in a lot of these small areas you end up co-opting with other small areas and you put together a wider range.”