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Game and Fish study says bird population has grown.
After a six-year investigation, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has decided it will recommend against listing the lesser prairie chicken as endangered or threatened, the Portales News Tribune reported today on its Web site.
The 121-page study of the birds’ population and habitat, which is posted in its entirety on the Game and Fish Department Web site, found that the number of chickens found in leks, or breeding grounds, actually increased about 83 percent from 2001 through 2005, the News Tribune reported.
"The prairie chickens are very unlikely to be threatened in the near future," Dawn Davis of the Game and Fish Department told the paper.
The population increases were most likely due to above-average precipitation for the past two springs and increased participation from private landowners in habitat improvement projects, said Davis, who participated in the study.
John Clemmons, a rancher who joined in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project in 2003 to set aside 206 acres near Elida for 10 years for prairie chicken protection, told the News Tribune the birds are part of New Mexico ranchers’ heritage.
"They are just a likable species, and most people enjoy seeing them," Clemmons told the paper. "We just need to take extra precautions in protecting them."
Prairie chickens became candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act in the mid-’90s because of loss of habitat, droughts and encroaching urbanization.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife reviews the prairie chicken’s status every year and could still be put on the federal endangered species list.
The Game and Fish recommendation is for New Mexico only, the News Tribune said. The State Game Commission will make a final decision on the recommendation when it meets Nov. 16 in Farmington, the paper reported.
Meanwhile, there will be a public meeting for Game and Fish to take comment from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 15 at Clovis Community College.
Prairie chickens are found only in fragmented pockets of habitat in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, with only Kansas and Texas allowing the birds to be hunted, the News Tribune said.
Each year, the town of Milnesand and nearby ranches in eastern New Mexico host a Prairie Chicken Festival where visitors can watch the birds’ early-morning mating rituals, the paper said.
