RANCHING Wildlife
Clay Cooper used prescription grazing and brush control to enhance the ranch for his cattle and improve habitat for the lesser prairie chicken.
Bird Is the Word to Leverage Conservation Lesser prairie chicken plan benefi ts a ranch, cattle, wildlife
C LAY COOPER ENJOYED SEEING AND HEARING THE LESSER
prairie chickens on his family’s ranch, but the Higgins rancher didn’t give the birds that much
thought. They had always been there in that northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle. Then he learned of the leverage they offered to improve the ranch for both cattle and wildlife. That is because there are so few of the birds and so
much support to save them. A popular icon in the region, the lesser prairie
chicken once inhabited 180,000 square miles in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. But settlement and civilization have not been friendly to the shy bird. The prairie chickens need large tracts of intact
native grasslands. Conversion of rangeland to crop- land along with other human development have depleted habitat. Drought, overgrazing and brush encroachment have degraded habitat quality. Today the bird exists in pockets equal to about 16 percent of its historic range.
tscra.org For nearly 20 years, the lesser prairie chicken has
teetered on the brink of being listed as a “threatened” species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That is one step below “endangered” and could trigger more regulation. To increase numbers and range of the bird, state
and federal agencies and even private conservation groups have partnered in the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative. Because 95 percent of current habitat is on private land, the USDA Natural Resources Conserva- tion Service (NRCS) has taken the lead in on-the- ground efforts. Those efforts include technical help and cost-share
funds to improve overall health of grazing lands and the long-term sustainability of ranching operations.
Enhance habitat Cooper fi rst learned of the initiative from his local
NRCS district conservationist. The initiative starts with ranches where populations of the lesser prairie chicken exist. The idea is to enhance habitat there,
November 2016 The Cattleman 75
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