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Feds propose working with New Mexico landownersALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)--Federal officials are pushing for landowners, energy companies and ranchers to work together to help protect and restore habitat for the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management have proposed entering into voluntary candidate conservation agreements with private landowners and those who lease land from the federal government in southeastern New Mexico where the two species are found. The lesser prairie chicken and the lizard are both candidates for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service on Oct. 22 released a draft of the proposed agreements and an environmental assessment. The public has until Nov. 20 to comment. Benjamin N. Tuggle, director of Fish and Wildlife's Southwest Region, said he hopes people consider participating in the program. "Because of New Mexico's mix of federal, state and private lands, one conservation approach isn't enough," he said. "The voluntary agreements provide an avenue to integrate conservation efforts across these intermingled land ownerships." Lesser prairie chickens are round, stocky ground-dwelling birds. Males are famous for courtship displays in which they inflate pouches of skin on the side of their necks. The Fish and Wildlife Service said the birds have declined due to changes in their native prairie habitat. The sand dune lizard, which lives among sand dunes and shinnery oak, has been a candidate for endangered species protection since 2001. Under the candidate conservation program, landowners could be asked to control mesquite to improve habitat, make grazing modifications, modify fences to reduce collision by prairie chickens, avoid leasing habitat to energy development and keeping new surface disturbances out of dune areas. 11/3/08 Date: 10/30/08 Advertisement
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