Trump administration ends protections for rare dancing prairie bird

The ruling by a federal judge in Midland, Texas, in effect ended Endangered Species Act protections for the bird last summer. The protections required the energy industry and ranchers to take steps to avoid disrupting the birds' habitat and especially their mating areas, called leks.

The crow-sized birds once numbered in the millions. Habitat loss from energy and agriculture development has shrunk their population to about 30,000 across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Wildlife watchers delight in the male birds' spring dances and their warbling, clucking and stomping ruckus to attract mates. Native American tribes mimic the flamboyant displays — also a behavior of the more common greater prairie chicken — in some of their dances.

The lesser prairie chicken has been federally protected twice in recent years. In 2015, a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Midland reversed the bird's listing as a threatened species the year before, siding with petroleum developers who argued that sufficient protections were already in place.

In 2022, President Joe Biden's administration listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened in the northern part of its range in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and as endangered in a “distinct population segment" to the south in New Mexico and Texas.

The listing prompted a lawsuit filed by Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas and groups including the Permian Basin Petroleum Association and National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

After President Donald Trump took office last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service reevaluated the bird and agreed with the states and groups that it lacked justification to classify the lesser prairie chicken into two distinctly different populations.

Last August, another judge in U.S. District Court in Midland granted a Fish and Wildlife Service motion to reverse its Biden-era listings for the lesser prairie chicken.

“Fish and Wildlife's concession points to serious error at the very foundation of its rule,” District Judge David Counts wrote in his Aug. 12 ruling praised by Texas officials.

Texas oil and gas regulatory officials including Texas Railroad Commission spokesperson Bryce Dubee and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham welcomed the delisting.

“It will ensure American oil and gas production in the Permian Basin remains robust and our economy steadfast,” Buckingham said in an emailed statement.

Environmentalists vowed to fight on in court.

“It’s shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit,” Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. “Lesser prairie chickens may be lost forever without Endangered Species Act protections.”