Monday, February 06, 2012

Reptile Might Skirt Listing Debate Thanks To Voluntary Protection Agreements

In the polarized debate over whether the Fish and Wildlife Service should list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, the Bureau of Land Management has been promoting what it calls a third way that could protect the reptile, while accommodating business in the southeast oil patch. In the last eight months, the BLM, which controls most of the land where the lizard remains, has stepped up efforts to voluntarily enroll ranchers and energy companies in agreements committing them to protecting and reclaiming lizard habitat across hundreds of thousands of acres. BLM officials are blunt in stating they believe the agreements should convince Fish and Wildlife that endangered species listing, and the accompanying extra layer of oversight, are unnecessary. The agreements, which promote the protection of habitat for both the lizard and the lesser prairie chicken, another species under threat in the same oil-rich region, achieve the goals of endangered species listing, said Doug Burger, the director of the BLM’s Pecos District covering southeast New Mexico. “You’re going to end up with the same sort of conservation measures (through listing) that we are doing now,” Burger said during a recent tour of the shinnery oak-covered dunes critical to the survival of the lizard. “This is the kind of cooperative work we should be doing. … We still have conflict, but we manage that conflict.”...more

It's refreshing to hear such a positive, can do message from a BLM manager.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Isn't that what the South said when they heard Gen. T.Sherman's discription for their surrender terms..."that is a refreshing view from a government official"? Then the government in Washington got involved and everything that was good changed. I doubt the lizard will escape the bureaucrats or the econuts.