Reptile Might Skirt Listing Debate Thanks To Voluntary Protection Agreements

ROSWELL – In the polarized debate over whether the Fish and Wildlife Service should list the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, the Bureau of Land Management has been promoting what it calls a third way that could protect the reptile, while accommodating business in the southeast oil patch.

In the last eight months, the BLM, which controls most of the land where the lizard remains, has stepped up efforts to voluntarily enroll ranchers and energy companies in agreements committing them to protecting and reclaiming lizard habitat across hundreds of thousands of acres.

BLM officials are blunt in stating they believe the agreements should convince Fish and Wildlife that endangered species listing, and the accompanying extra layer of oversight, are unnecessary.

The agreements, which promote the protection of habitat for both the lizard and the lesser prairie chicken, another species under threat in the same oil-rich region, achieve the goals of endangered species listing, said Doug Burger, the director of the BLM’s Pecos District covering southeast New Mexico.

“You’re going to end up with the same sort of conservation measures (through listing) that we are doing now,” Burger said during a recent tour of the shinnery oak-covered dunes critical to the survival of the lizard. “This is the kind of cooperative work we should be doing. … We still have conflict, but we manage that conflict.”

In early December, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced a six-month delay in its decision whether to list the 3-inch-long lizard as an endangered species. The delay, requested by U.S. senators and representatives in Texas and New Mexico, provides additional time to consider conflicting data about the lizard’s status.

The delay has also given industry more time to sign on to the voluntary conservation agreements and show that the private sector is committed to ensuring the lizard’s survival.

While the conservation agreements were first offered in late 2010, most of the new sign-ups, Burger said, have occurred in the last eight months.

At the end of 2010, only six private land owners and four oil companies had signed agreements covering a total of 200,000 acres, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. As of the end of January, an additional 25 oil and gas companies had signed on, covering 816,000 acres of mineral rights.

Many of those mineral rights are under 1.5 million acres of surface land leased by 39 ranchers and now subject to conservation agreements.

Among other things, the agreements pledge oil companies to avoid drilling wells and laying pipe in the sand dunes where lizards dwell and to recovering former habitat buried under hard caliche well pads. Ranchers also participate in efforts to protect the lizard’s shinnery oak habitat.

Oil and gas companies also pay into a pool of money, up to $20,000 per location depending on the sensitivity of the site, which is used on conservation efforts. Nearly $3 million has been contributed so far.

According to BLM data, two-thirds of the mineral rights and rangeland in the lizard’s habitat in New Mexico are now covered by conservation agreements.

Of the agreements, Devon Energy spokesman Cindy Allen said, “We think it’s the best conservation tool we have to preclude the listing of an endangered species. It’s much preferable (to listing).”

Devon Energy, which has 938 wells in the Permian Basin in New Mexico, has paid $250,000 into the conservation fund under agreements that cover 70,000 acres of land.

“We think it’s reasonable,” Allen said.

The major benefit of signing onto the agreements is that, if the lizard is listed, companies can continue their operations without interruption.

Those who don’t participate can’t do anything that harms or kills the lizard, and a lengthy review is required before an operation can begin.

Jerry Fanning Jr., environmental coordinator for Yates Petroleum, also said the agreements are a good way to help imperiled species without tying up drilling projects. “We do not want to see any species endangered, especially when we are out there and they are our neighbors,” Fanning said. “We are trying to do the right thing.”

However, no such agreements are yet in place on the roughly 200,000 acres of lizard habitat in Texas.

In New Mexico, the State Land Office is also enrolling lessees in conservation agreements, though the extent of the land covered was unavailable.

In addition to enacting the agreements, the BLM, as part of a 2008 regional management plan, closed 370,000 acres of federal land to oil and gas leasing in an area that includes prime habitat for the lizard and the lesser prairie chicken.

Seventy percent of the land within the lizard’s New Mexico range has already been leased by private owners, BLM or the state Land Office. That’s more than 4,000 wells within lizard habitat in New Mexico alone. The Permian Basin is home to more than 30,000 wells, but the lizard occurs on less than 2 percent of it.

Mark Salvo, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, said the conservation agreements, while positive, are unproven and “not a substitute” for listing.

“What happens if we discover whatever those land users have agreed to do is not enough to protect the species?” Salvo said.

Fish and Wildlife itself had expressed concerns about the program when it sought public comment on the proposed listing of the lizard in December 2010.

For one thing, it’s not known how effective the conservation agreements will be. Participants can opt out at any time. “There are hundreds of oil and gas operators in the range of the dunes sagebrush lizard, and participation throughout the majority of the dunes sagebrush lizard habitat would be necessary for the conservation of the species,” the service wrote.