Environmentalists, industry squawk over prairie chickens

A battle is brewing in the western USA over federal protections for four species of chickenlike birds with declining populations, setting up one of the most contentious fights over threatened species since environmentalists and business interests sparred over the northern spotted owl in the 1990s. The fight intensified last month after three environmental groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to try to force the agency to more aggressively protect the lesser prairie chicken -- a bird the service placed on the threatened species list this year. The FWS estimated in 2013 that the lesser prairie chicken population stood at about 17,600, half what it was a year earlier and less than a third of its population in the late 1990s. Environmentalists contend in their lawsuit that the FWS should put the lesser prairie chicken -- a member of the grouse family known for its colorful plumage and burbling mating calls -- on the higher endangered list. The less restrictive "threatened" designation allows oil, gas, wind power, agriculture and other industries to kill up to 1,300 prairie chickens a year in the five states where the prairie chicken roosts: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. "In listing the species as threatened, the government carved out all sorts of exemptions. … It's almost impossible to conceive how someone could violate the rule other than by deliberately going out and shooting a chicken," said Jay Lininger, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued the FWS. Before the lawsuit, state, local and federal lawmakers decried the threatened species designation as overreach by the federal government that will hamper the energy and agriculture industries. Kansas and Oklahoma sued over the prairie chicken designation, and four New Mexico counties joined a lawsuit by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association in Texas. Under the Obama administration, the FWS has listed 263 species as endangered or threatened, an average of 47.8 per year, according to data compiled by the Defenders of Wildlife. In comparison, the George W. Bush administration listed 70 species, or 8.8 per year, over two terms, and the Clinton administration listed 535 species, or 66.9 per year, over two terms...more