The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has placed the Lesser Prairie-Chicken on the Endangered Species List. The Center for Biological Diversity sued in October, saying USFWS was moving too slowly after proposing the listing a year and a half ago.

 

USFWS says that the birds are near extinction in their southern range — New Mexico and the southwest Texas Panhandle — and are at risk of becoming endangered in the northern stretch of their home — Kansas, Oklahoma, and the northeast Texas Panhandle where they are now listed as such.

 

Kansas Senator Jerry Moran says that this decision threatens to place unnecessary restrictions on farmers, ranchers, and energy producers.

 

Kansas Congressman Tracey Mann condemned the decision and said that in their final rule, the US Fish and Wildlife Service first commended landowners’ voluntary efforts to increase lesser prairie-chicken populations in Kansas, and then unilaterally decided that the federal government is better equipped to address these local areas. Mann went on to say that the ruling is more than another example of federal overreach - it is a proxy war on American agriculture and energy sectors that are vital to our economy. Farmers, ranchers, and landowners are the original conservationists, and the federal government should get out of their way to let them do what they do best.