Western Governors urge USFWS to approve state conservation mechanism for lesser prairie chicken
Governors of five western states have urged the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to approve the Range-wide Conservation Plan for the Lesser Prairie Chicken (RWP) as the key conservation mechanism for the species. The Lesser Prairie Chicken is found in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. In December of 2012, the USFWS proposed to list the species as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. The Western Governors who signed on to the Aug. 2 letter to USFWS - John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Sam Brownback (Kan.), Mary Fallin (Okla.), Susana Martinez (N.M.), and Rick Perry (Texas) - are instead urging Dan Ashe, the Director of USFWS, to make use of existing public-private partnerships to conserve the species rather than listing the species as threatened. Such a listing can unduly restrict land use and state land management. ...