AUSTIN Texas Parks and Wildlife Department executive director David Yoskowitz, Ph.D. said via press release on Wednesday that he applauds 16 years of “tremendous” voluntary collaboration with private landowners and industry to conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat and reiterates the department’s opposition to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listing the species.
“This decision jeopardizes decades of voluntary conservation efforts, increases regulatory burden and does not assure recovery of the species,” Yoskowitz said in the press release.
USFWS published a final rule Nov. 25 listing the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act. Once implemented in January, the decision would affect 14 counties in Texas, listing the bird as threatened in some and endangered in others.
“Notwithstanding this very unfortunate decision, TPWD stands committed to working with private landowners and industry to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat, just as we have for decades,” Yoskowitz said in the press release.
The new USFWS designation comprises a Northern Distinct Population Segment, where the bird will be listed as threatened in seven counties in the northeast Texas Panhandle, and the Southern DPS, where the species will be listed as endangered in seven counties in the southwest Texas Panhandle.
The listing under the ESA goes into effect Jan. 24, 2023 and makes “take” of lesser prairie-chickens or their habitat a federal violation. Take means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Incidental take refers to takings that result from, but are not the purpose of, conducting an otherwise lawful activity.
Under the final USFWS ruling, a 4(d) rule for the Northern DPS provides for incidental take exemptions for routine agricultural activities on cultivated lands, prescribed grazing conducted under an approved plan and prescribed fire.
Landowners in the northeast Texas Panhandle interested in receiving an approved prescribed grazing plan under the 4(d) rule should contact a USFWS-certified prescribed grazing planner to initiate enrollment into that plan. A list of FAQs and certified planners will be continuously updated and available at www.fws.gov/lpc, and a list of FAQs is available on the USFWS Lesser Prairie-Chicken Listing FAQs website.
