WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Environmental Group Criticizes BLM Habitat Plans

WildEarth Guardians favors listing both the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard
Contact: Albuquerque Journal

Santa Fe, NM - An environmental group says the Bureau of Land Management's plans to protect habitat for the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard will do the species more harm than good.

"We fear this is recipe for extinction dressed up as a conservation plan," said Lauren McCain, desert and grasslands program director for WildEarth Guardians.

The release of the proposed special status species management plan and final environmental impact statement last week started a 30-day period for protests.

The BLM said its amended management plan for the prairie chicken will allow oil and gas development, grazing and off-road vehicles on federal land used by the birds but still will protect its population.

Landowners and conservationists in New Mexico have been working to keep the bird from being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. WildEarth Guardians favors listing both species.

WildEarth Guardians said Monday that recent evidence shows the prairie chicken has suffered serious declines in parts of its range in parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The group said the lizard is so endangered scientists fear they cannot prevent its extinction. The lizard is found only in New Mexico and a small portion of West Texas.

"The few restrictions imposed by the plan are woefully inadequate to protect the prairie chicken and lizard," WildEarth Guardians said.

The planning area covers 1.8 million acres in Roosevelt, Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties. WildEarth Guardians said the plan opens more than 800,000 acres to new oil and gas leasing - more than 70 percent of existing prairie chicken and sand dune lizard habitat in the four-county area.

The plan will allow oil and gas development on nearly 5,000 acres where the animals exist, and although BLM issues stipulations to mitigate impacts from oil and gas on special status species, stipulations often are waived, WildEarth Guardians said. It said the bureau waived about 500 stipulations designed to protect the species in the last few years.

Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission