Lesser Prairie Chickens, Photo by Tom Cloud, Hemphill County, Texas. April 2003.

The Arlington Field Office recently submitted [7/24/2006] the application of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for an Enhancement of Survival Permit and Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) in Texas.  Under this agreement, the Department would agree to enroll private landowners in a 50-county planning area of West Texas into the CCAA via Certificates of Inclusion following the development of a state-approved wildlife management plan for the landowners’ property.  The wildlife management plans will specifically address those habitat management actions that the individual landowners will need to undertake to improve their land for the LPC.  In exchange for the landowners’ willingness to manage their property to benefit LPCs, they will be given assurances that no additional land use restrictions and/or actions will be required beyond those agreed to should the species be listed as threatened or endangered at some point in the future.  It is believed that this landscape level of habitat restoration/management will lead to improved habitat conditions for the LPC and ultimately lead to a trend in recovery of the species population levels in Texas, thus, potentially alleviating the need for the Service to list the species.  NEPA compliance and public review of the proposed CCAA is currently being undertaken.