LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Oil companies and ranchers across West Texas are celebrating a change in status for a previously endangered species.
The Less Prairie Chicken is no longer considered an endangered species. Back in 2022, after 30 years of lawsuits, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the bird under its protection.
It previously limited how landowners could develop property inside its natural ecosystem across the South Plains and Permian Basin.
Now, the Trump Administration is removing those protections as part of its effort to reduce regulations for the energy industry.
However, activists say the bird may go extinct without protection.
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