FWS Lesser Prairie Chicken Threatened Listing Has Convoluted History

摘要

The LPC listing history originates with a petition to FWS from the Biodiversity Legal Foundation of Boulder, Colorado, in 1995. The issue gained no real traction until December 2008, when the agency decided heightened wind energy and oil and gas development, along with increased conversion of LPC range to cropland, warranted a more urgent status for the species. WildEarth Guardians sued the FWS in 2010, alleging the agency had not met deadlines in determining the listing status of 251 species, including the LPC. A series of legal filings by the WildEarth Guardians was consolidated with others by the Center for Biological Diversity into a single case in US District Court in Washington, DC. That in turn resulted in the FWS agreeing to a settlement that called for the agency to publish a proposed listing rule for the LPC in the Federal Register in 2012. A public comment period followed, and thereafter the agency submitted the rule to two "peer reviewers," who generally concurred with the agency's findings.