A dancing bird finally gets some protection

What I remember most about that dark early morning of crouching on the prairie is the rhythmic sound of pounding. It was so loud I wondered if someone had put a microphone near the skinny legs of the dozen birds dancing on the turf. As the sun rose above the horizon in southeastern New Mexico, the male lesser prairie chickens continued their ritual performance, each hoping to entice a female.

ey strutted, leaped in the air with feathers spread, and bowed, but the greatest thrill was watching them pu up the garish, red-orange air sacs on either side of their necks.

Concealed in a blind, we watched late into the morning that spring of 1999, until the last birds — members of a rapidly vanishing species — ew o .

I recalled that wonderful day recently, because in late March, after countless lawsuits and scienti c opinions, the lesser prairie chicken in New Mexico, Colorado and eastwards nally got what it so desperately needs — federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. e designation, however, comes 25 long years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rst determined that this magical dancing bird could go the way of the passenger pigeon.

Letter To The Editor

Writers On The Range

dangered Species Act protection for the lesser prairie chicken has mainly been about oil and gas development. Meaningful protection of this bird, whose habitat covers millions of acres across New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, would mean restraint from the oil and gas and agricultural industries. Pump jacks and plows are the greatest threats to prairie chicken survival.

John Horning

In June 1988, the Service did something seemingly mundane, though it had profound consequences. It relegated the lesser prairie chicken to what might be called endangered species purgatory — making its protection status “warranted but precluded” under the Endangered Species Act. Precluded apparently meant, “We should list the birds but nd it impossible to do that.”

For decades, the Fish and Wildlife Service, under pressure from opponents in Congress and powerful industries, has used this designation to delay Endangered Species Act protections for hundreds of species that need an ecological safety net, including the lesser prairie chicken. e result since 1998 has been predictable: e bird’s numbers have plummeted. In many parts of the West, it has disappeared entirely. Lesser prairie chickens now number about 30,000, less than 2% of what they were in the 19th century when the birds ourished in the hundreds of thousands.

Controversy around granting En-

Kansas Republicans, namely Sen. Roger Marshall and Rep. Tracy Mann, have already pressured the Fish and Wildlife Service to delay the date that the listing takes e ect. Texas has also led a lawsuit to block the listing, and Kansas and Oklahoma are threatening to sue. e long struggle to keep the birds alive is far from over.

Fifty years ago, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act to recognize the importance of endangered and threatened species, citing their “esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational and scienti c value to the Nation and its people.” e Act’s vision was remarkable, and Americans are fortunate that the law fought for a half-century ago continues to be fought for today.

I am proud that our nation passed this powerful law to protect the diversity of life. But for our nation’s laws to really mean something, they must be enforced, even when — especially when — opponents are among the most economically and politically powerful industries. e re station at Rainbow Hills is basically a glori ed Tu Shed and double wide trailer. In its place, the developer of the Evergreen Gateway

You’d think that identifying a species as “endangered” meant that there was still time to save it. But the prairie chicken, along with its high-pro le distant cousin, the sage grouse, is running out of time. e birds need lots of open space, and the new designation only puts some constraints on existing oil and gas operations, while limiting new development.

Later this spring, I intend to return to the prairies near the town of Milnesand, New Mexico, this time with my nine-year-old twins in tow. I can only hope that the birds are still dancing. I also hope that my boys have the opportunity to watch and wonder about why these birds return to woo females at the same place each spring, and what we, as a society, must do to ensure that the dance continues.

John Horning is a contributor to Writers on the Range, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is the executive director of WildEarth Guardians and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The May 2 election is crucial e special district election on May 2 has both consequences and bene ts for our community. ese boards oversee re protection and emergency medical services, our water and wastewater as well as the rec center.

In other words our lives depend on them. So it is crucial people start paying attention to who is running for these boards and what their agendas are. Many have hidden agendas. ese agendas are often quite expensive and have some kind of grudge or personal bene t behind them like an indoor sports facility and ice rink or perhaps not standing up to a liquor store owner when we need to build a new re station.

For the residents of the Foothills Fire Protection District, you have an opportunity to not just gain a new state-of-the-art re station at no cost, you also have an opportunity to conduct a national search for a re service leader to serve as chief, but the current board members and candidates seem to be working overtime on keeping the district in the dark ages, so to speak.

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project has o ered to donate a new station that will o er a much better facility. is could also allow the current facility to be deconstructed instead of torn down and moved to another parcel of land in the Lookout Mountain or Mount Vernon area to replace the other aging outdated facility well you know besides Idledale and Grapevine (below exit 256 near Riva Chase) Tu Shed.

Foothills also seems to want to go in house to hire an unquali ed person to be chief because they don’t want a culture shock. Foothills has needed a culture shock since I left in 2002 to be the county re chief in Las Cruces, New Mexico. With that culture shock and a new facility, they could attract top talent, but the board members in charge now seem to prefer a dictatorship and efdom.

I encourage the residents of all special districts to participate by attending the forums and reading the information that will be in the next few issues of the Courier. Find time to ask the hard questions and press for answers. It is not just the tax dollars at work but your life and property at risk.

Nate Marshall, Evergreen

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