Senators of a handful of oil and gas-producing states, including Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe and James Lankford are urging Interior Secretary Haaland not to put the Lesser Prairie Chicken on the list of endangered species.
Sens. Inhofe and Lankford were joined by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and John Cornyn (R-TX).
They wrote their opposition about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s impending action by May 26 to put the lesser prairie-chicken on the list after a 12-month assessment. The species is found in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas along with New Mexico where Haaland served as a U.S. Representative before he appointment as Secretary.
“We strongly believe it would be imprudent and harmful to ongoing and unprecedented conservation efforts in our states for the Service to issue what would amount to a premature ESA listing proposal for the LPC.”
The Senators argued for Haaland to allow public-private conservation partnerships to continue and said the conservation practices have paid off as aerial surveys from 2020 show the species’ population more than doubled since 2013.
“The evidence is clear-collaborative, public-private conservation partnerships work,” wrote the Senators.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
