Removal of protections for lesser prairie chickens is a huge blow that harms voluntary conservation

Jackie Augustine, executive director of Audubon of Kansas, helps set up a bird blind in preparation for a lek watch tour. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)

Every spring, I venture to Gove County in western Kansas to witness one last connection to our wild shortgrass prairie heritage: the mating dance of the lesser prairie chicken. As the executive director for Audubon of Kansas, we host an annual prairie chicken festival that attracts people from all over the world to see this iconic prairie grouse species.

Last month, a court ruling removed Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken. This decision will send the birds flying toward extinction. The last time that such protections for the lesser prairie chicken were removed in 2016, extensive habitat loss occurred, with the great majority of these changes being related to energy extraction — oil and natural gas infrastructure or wind turbines.

When I sit in the blind this coming spring, I will mourn the fact that those alive today might be the last generations able to witness this timeless tradition if these protections are not reinstated.

I venture out hours before sunrise to sit in a blind in the dark waiting for the birds to appear. In the murky, first light of dawn, shapes appear with a flurry of wings, cackling calls and gobbling songs. Prairie chicken males vigorously defend their territory, on this same patch of ground, year after year.

As I watch, I am surrounded by relict bison wallows, reminding me that these birds were always linked to grazing — formerly bison and now cattle. Because more than 90% of the birds’ habitat is on private land, many of those who raise grass-fed cattle are allies for prairie chickens.

This is the second time that lesser prairie chickens have had their protections vacated.

Besides being bad for the prairie chicken, this on-again, off-again approach is bad for landowners willing to participate in voluntary conservation measures. Imagine being a landowner counting on funding for removing woody vegetation to increase forage available for cattle grazing, only to have it disappear overnight. Imagine working toward enrolling your property in a conservation easement to ensure that your family’s ranching operation will be profitable long term and available to the next generation, only to have your business plan toppled.

Prairie chickens and ranching can coexist, but this regulatory uncertainty is bad for business — both ranching and energy.

The lesser prairie chicken, a colorful small grouse, needs unbroken tracts of prairie to survive and flourish. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)

When lesser prairie chickens were most recently listed, two distinct population segments were defined and given different protections: the northern population in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and northern Texas was classified as “threatened,” whereas the southern population in New Mexico and western Texas was classified as “endangered.” A lawsuit was advanced in 2023 by the state of Texas and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association against the U.S. Department of Interior in federal court.

The plaintiffs argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly applied its policy for determining distinct population segments. Distinct population segments must be both discrete (physically separated) and also significant (different in genetics, habitat, or other factors).

When lesser prairie chickens were listed in 2022, the ruling document explicitly explained that two distinct population segments were justified because they were separated by 95 miles (discrete), and the two populations showed significant differences in habitat (oak-shinnery vs sage and bluestem) and genetic structure, and that the loss of one of the population segments would result in at least a 25 percent decline in habitat occupied (significant threat to area occupied).

However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service willfully neglected its own previous scientific finding in federal court.

The court ruling documents: “Following the change in federal administration in January 2025, Fish and Wildlife re-evaluated Plaintiff’s claims and now believe it erred in applying the distinct population segment policy and did not provide a sufficient justification that the two population segments of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken are significant for the purpose of identifying a distinct population segment.”

In other words, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argues that there is enough evidence that the two populations are discrete, but not enough evidence that they were significant, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

For 30 years, various conservation measures have been enacted to bring back lesser prairie chickens. Yet, the birds have continued to decline. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service anticipates that it will make a new finding on the 2016 listing petition by Nov. 30, 2026.

So this loss of protection will hopefully be short-lived—and this time the protection should stick.

Endangered Species Act protections are a last-ditch effort to prevent extinction, and they have been successfully applied to save the vast majority of the species listed. Lesser prairie chickens need the protection of the ESA, and landowners need support to enact conservation measures that are good for the herd and good for the bird.

Jackie Augustine, Audubon of Kansas executive director, is a behavioral ecologist who studies the mating behaviors of wild birds. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.