Fish and Wildlife Issues Agreement On Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation

摘要

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a conservation agreement Feb. 28 as a way for companies to protect the lesser prairie chicken, a candidate for Endangered Species Act listing as threatened. The agreement is one of the enrollment options for implementing the conservation strategy set up by the 2013 Lesser Prairie Chicken Range-Wide Conservation Plan, a comprehensive plan developed by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and finalized in October. The Range-Wide Oil and Gas Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances uses the same metrics and conservation system outlined in the range-wide conservation plan, and in fact, oil and gas companies had already begun signing up for participation in the plan before the additional agreement was issued. The range-wide plan provides for an incentive-based landowner program along with a mitigation framework to fully offset impacts and provide additional conservation for the lesser prairie chicken.