Endangered Species Act protections<\/a> for the bird last summer. The protections required the energy industry and ranchers to take steps to avoid disrupting the birds\u2019 habitat and especially their mating areas, called leks.<\/p>\nThe crow-sized birds once numbered in the millions. Habitat loss from energy and agriculture development has shrunk their population to about 30,000 across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.<\/p>\n
Wildlife watchers delight in the male birds\u2019 spring dances and their warbling, clucking and stomping ruckus to attract mates. Native American tribes mimic the flamboyant displays \u2014 also a behavior of the more common greater prairie chicken \u2014 in some of their dances.<\/p>\n
The lesser prairie chicken has been federally protected twice in recent years. In 2015, a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Midland reversed the bird\u2019s listing as a threatened species the year before, siding with petroleum developers who argued that sufficient protections were already in place.<\/p>\n
In 2022, President Joe Biden\u2019s administration listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened in the northern part of its range in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and as endangered in a \u201cdistinct population segment\u201d to the south in New Mexico and Texas.<\/p>\n
The listing prompted a lawsuit filed by Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and groups including the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association.<\/p>\n
After President Donald Trump took office last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service reevaluated the bird and agreed with the states and groups that it lacked justification to classify the lesser prairie chicken into two distinctly different populations.<\/p>\n
Last August, another judge in U.S. District Court in Midland granted a Fish and Wildlife Service motion to reverse its Biden-era listings for the lesser prairie chicken.<\/p>\n
\u201cFish and Wildlife\u2019s concession points to serious error at the very foundation of its rule,\u201d District Judge David Counts wrote in his Aug. 12 ruling praised by Texas officials.<\/p>\n
Texas oil and gas regulatory officials including Texas Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham welcomed the delisting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will ensure American oil and gas production in the Permian Basin remains robust and our economy steadfast,\u201d Buckingham said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists vowed to fight on in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit,\u201d Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity\u2019s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. \u201cLesser prairie chickens may be lost forever without Endangered Species Act protections.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) \u2014 A ground-dwelling bird known for elaborate mating dances on the southern Great Plains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2837,200590,49,48,20757,5731,200591,200593,1376,18156,9890,295,2841,200592,6512,1435,172846,47,51722,115645,200589,5400,714,66,544,20371,8892,2845,772,8116,10128],"class_list":{"0":"post-502208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-bryce-dubee","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-co-state-wire","13":"tag-colorado","14":"tag-david-counts","15":"tag-dawn-buckingham","16":"tag-donald-trump","17":"tag-endangered-species","18":"tag-energy-industry","19":"tag-environment","20":"tag-general-news","21":"tag-jason-rylander","22":"tag-joe-biden","23":"tag-kansas","24":"tag-ks-state-wire","25":"tag-national","26":"tag-new-mexico","27":"tag-nm-state-wire","28":"tag-ok-state-wire","29":"tag-oklahoma","30":"tag-politics","31":"tag-science","32":"tag-texas","33":"tag-tx-state-wire","34":"tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service","35":"tag-u-s-news","36":"tag-united-states","37":"tag-united-states-government","38":"tag-zoology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}