The US Home has voted to advance a invoice that may use the Congressional Overview Act to rescind the November 2022 determination by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to listing the Lesser Prairie-Hen below the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The invoice narrowly handed the Senate in Could on a 50-48 vote. The White Home has indicated that President Biden would veto any such invoice that makes it to his desk.
“These sorts of political assaults ignore science and don’t have any place in how our nation manages wildlife,” mentioned Marshall Johnson, chief conservation officer, Nationwide Audubon Society. “President Biden ought to hold his dedication to veto this invoice with out pause. Given their imperiled state, Lesser Prairie-Chickens will vanish from our grasslands with out these obligatory protections.”
Since formal nationwide hen monitoring started within the Nineteen Sixties, Lesser Prairie-Hen populations have declined by 97 % throughout their vary. This decline is likely one of the most precipitous amongst all hen life within the U.S. and can in the end result in extinction if not addressed.
This vote occurs as we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which has prevented extinction for 99 % of the species it has protected. This invoice wouldn’t solely reverse the current itemizing determination, but in addition seeks to stop the US Fish and Wildlife Service from issuing considerably comparable protections sooner or later.
Lesser Prairie-chicken, copyright Andrew Spencer, from the surfbirds galleries
The Lesser Prairie-Hen was first proposed for ESA itemizing in 1995. Since then, the hen has been by a curler coaster of itemizing choices, court docket orders, and failed restoration efforts, all whereas populations proceed to plummet. The species is managed individually within the northern and southern elements of its vary, which incorporates parts of 5 states (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico).
Learn extra from Audubon Southwest’s Jon Hayes: Collectively We are able to Save the Lesser Prairie-Hen
Audubon’s assertion on the Senate vote: Senate Ignores Science With Vote to Finish Lesser-Prairie Hen Protections
Audubon’s assertion on the Home Pure Sources Committee vote: Committee Vote Undermines Science and Threatens the Lesser Prairie-Hen
