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Santa Fe, NM – Nov 23. WildEarth Guardians and other conservation groups today warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of their intent to sue the agency over its failure to protect the lesser prairie-chicken under the federal Endangered Species Act. WildEarth Guardians also released a report, “Lesser Prairie-Chicken: The Sky Really is Falling,” which documents continued declines and threats against the critically imperiled bird throughout its five-state range in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

In June 1998, the lesser prairie-chicken warranted Endangered Species Act protection, according to the Service, but was considered precluded by higher priority species. Six years later, it has not even been proposed for listing and therefore remains an unprotected candidate species. The groups’ notice of intent to sue asserts that in the six years since it was deemed worthy of protection under the Endangered Species Act, the prairie-chicken has declined further as a result of continued habitat destruction from oil and gas and livestock grazing. Moreover, the groups allege the Service’s excuses for not having listed the species are fundamentally flawed.

“With the hardship of livestock grazing during drought and the onslaught of oil and gas drilling from the Bush Energy Plan, we’re losing this beautiful member of the natural and cultural heritage of the southern Great Plains,” stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino, Endangered Species Director for WildEarth Guardians. “Candidate status has been a purgatory for this bird on the brink. We won’t sit by while this species continues to slip towards extinction,” Rosmarino added.

The notice challenges the Service’s policy of delaying listings by designating at-risk species as candidates that warrant listing but are precluded by higher priority actions. Current national policy instructs regional Service offices to cease work on listing actions not under court order or settlement agreement unless additional funds remain to allow work on non-court ordered actions. The policy, started under the Clinton Administration, has continued under the Bush Administration, and it effectively prevents Service Regions from finalizing listing on most “warranted but precluded” species.

The groups also claim that the Service can no longer rely on its “warranted but precluded” status for the prairie chicken because doing so requires making “expeditious progress” in addressing the backlog of unlisted species, something the Service has failed to do. From January 2002 to March 2004, the listing of only one species was finalized in the Southwestern Region, despite the region’s backlog of two-dozen candidate species. Moreover, the single finalized listing that occurred (that of the Chiricahua leopard frog) was forced by a court-ordered settlement agreement. The groups have previously pointed out to the Service a mandate by Congress that the warranted but precluded designation be a short-term measure, and not be used as cover for the “foot-dragging efforts of a delinquent agency.”

The continued decline of the bird’s population throughout its five-state territory also adds greater urgency to list the species. The groups report declines in all five states in the prairie-chicken’s range, and a new threat – hybridization with greater prairie-chickens – in Kansas. When the lesser prairie-chicken was determined to warrant listing in 1998, the Service acknowledged that this grouse species occupied less than 10% of its former range. Population declines and further range reduction have continued over the past five years.

The groups claim that Bush administration policies will further degrade species habitat and continue to inadequately fund the Service’s endangered species listing program. In particular, they argue that the Bush Energy Plan, which favors resource extraction over environmental conservation, will further imperil habitat of the lesser prairie-chicken. Currently, protections provided for the prairie-chicken are both inadequate and ignored by the oil and gas industry.

In addition, the Bush Administration has a track record of forestalling listing of imperiled species. While President Clinton listed 65 species a year during his administration, and President George H.W. Bush listed 59 species per year, the George W. Bush Administration has listed only 31 species over 4 years, and all of these were under court order. For species on the brink of extinction, protection delays lead to species declines. According to a 2004 report from the Center for Biological Diversity (based on Service data), from 1973-1995, some 83 species for which federal protection was long delayed, went extinct.

Joining WildEarth Guardians in the Notice of Intent to Sue are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance, and T & E, Inc. The mission of WildEarth Guardians is to preserve and restore native wildlands and wildlife in the American Southwest through fundamental reform of public policies and practices.