USDA: Lesser prairie chicken report almost ready
July 22, 2014 | 09:37 PM
A report on the cost and effectiveness of measures to save the lesser prairie chicken is almost ready, an Agriculture Department spokesman said late Monday after House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and 11 other House Republicans wrote Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for the report.
“The report is nearly complete and should be finalized in the next several weeks,” Cullen Schwarz, a Vilsack spokesman, said in an email to The Hagstrom Report.
In the letter, the House members noted that the farm bill that President Barack Obama signed on February 7 required the report within 90 days, and that more than 150 days have passed.
“This report is perhaps even more important now, following the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision in March 2014 to list the lesser prairie chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),” the Republican members wrote in their letter.
“In our view, it is unfortunate that this listing, driven by the Department of the Interior’s settlement deadline negotiated with certain groups, proceeded despite the FWS’ approval last fall of a comprehensive five-state rangewide plan that is already demonstrating positive results for the lesser prairie chicken.”
“We request that your department provide this report immediately to appropriate committees as required by the law, so that millions of private landowners, states and other stakeholders that are investing significant resources for conservation of this species can ensure that the cost and effectiveness of federal programs are being properly accounted for, and to provide Congress information it requested prior to the listing.”
▪ House letter to Vilsack on Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation Report
“The report is nearly complete and should be finalized in the next several weeks,” Cullen Schwarz, a Vilsack spokesman, said in an email to The Hagstrom Report.
In the letter, the House members noted that the farm bill that President Barack Obama signed on February 7 required the report within 90 days, and that more than 150 days have passed.
“This report is perhaps even more important now, following the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision in March 2014 to list the lesser prairie chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),” the Republican members wrote in their letter.
“In our view, it is unfortunate that this listing, driven by the Department of the Interior’s settlement deadline negotiated with certain groups, proceeded despite the FWS’ approval last fall of a comprehensive five-state rangewide plan that is already demonstrating positive results for the lesser prairie chicken.”
“We request that your department provide this report immediately to appropriate committees as required by the law, so that millions of private landowners, states and other stakeholders that are investing significant resources for conservation of this species can ensure that the cost and effectiveness of federal programs are being properly accounted for, and to provide Congress information it requested prior to the listing.”
▪ House letter to Vilsack on Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation Report
