By Hannah Grover
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior asked a federal district court to send the listing of the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act back to the agencies as they plan to vacate the listing.
Industry groups, including the Permian Basin Petroleum Association as well as the State of Texas, challenged the decision to list the southern population of the bird as endangered and the northern population as threatened. The southern population can be found in New Mexico.
In the filing Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service stated that it had found a “serious defect” in the rule listing the prairie chicken as threatened and endangered. The agency said vacating the rule would allow the federal government to address that defect as well as the concerns Texas and the other plaintiffs raised.
The filing comes as Republicans in the U.S. Congress have sought to overturn the protections for the lesser prairie chicken on the basis that it will harm economic development.
According to the filing, the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that it did not “provide adequate justification and analysis to support the determination” that the lesser prairie chicken has two distinct population segments that warrant different levels of protection.
The Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the species will be without federal protections under the Endangered Species Act while it reviews the decision to list the lesser prairie chicken as two distinct populations. However, the court filing states “at least sixteen different conservation efforts and programs administered by state, federal and private entities exist that benefit the lesser prairie chicken.”
Environmental advocacy groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity decried the decision. The Center for Biological Diversity previously attempted to intervene in the court case, but its motion was denied. In denying the motion, the Court stated that the federal government agencies would defend the decision to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the federal government has taken steps to weaken the Endangered Species Act, including proposing to rescind the definition of harm in the regulations.
Jason Rylander, the legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a press release that this week’s court filing is an example of Trump’s administration “capitulating to the fossil fuel industry, ignoring sound science and common sense, and dooming an imperiled species to extinction.”
The lesser prairie chicken has been waiting for protection for more than 30 years. There’s no question that it’s imperiled, especially in the southern portion of its range,” he said.