Prairie Chicken Festival cancelled for second consecutive year

MANAGING EDITOR

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Despite the range-wide number lesser prairie chickens having increased by 20 percent, the local Prairie Chicken Festival has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to lack of population.

The festival was held every year in April for 11 years.

“Due to the drought-induced dip in prairie chicken numbers, we have not been able to locate enough well-populated, accessible leks (mating grounds) to conduct the festival satisfactorily,” read an email sent from event coordinators to event participants and sponsors.

“In the 11 years that we have held the festival, overall landscape conditions, and thus prairie chicken habitat, have not changed appreciably,” the email said. “But we are entering the third successive year of severe drought. Without the timely rains necessary to produce the forbs and bugs that the prairie chickens need to successfully raise a brood of chicks, the population has suffered.”

The email ended with asking everyone to “dance for rain.”

Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) Grassland Coordinator Bill Van Pelt said his group doesn’t estimate populations on a state-by-state basis. Population estimates are on a regional basis with the Eastern New Mexico/West Texas region being called Shinnery-Oak. Van Pelt said for this region, numbers once again, just “held their own” as in previous years but did not increase.

There are a couple of reasons for that, he said, and both have to do with rain with the prairie chicken being a species of bird heavily reliant upon water.

“It’s a combination of the vegetation response to rain and the insect population response to rain. So it’s a combination of cover and food,” Van Pelt said. “The end of last year, there was a significant amount of rain, but it came after nesting season. I’ve heard the region has had some good spring rains as well, so we hope to see those numbers improved next year.”

“A quick way of stating that is the area was in a drought for a long time, so there’s a lag effect with population response to good rain,” he added. “The winter moisture the region had is a good facilitator, but you won’t see the number responses for that until the following year.”

The birds will take advantage of the moisture increase now, Van Pelt said, but the results of that — a possible population increase — should be seen next year.

A recent WAFWA press release said the organization submitted an annual report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on March 31, which detailed “achievements under the Lesser Prairie-Chicken (LPC) Range-wide Conservation Plan (RWP).”

Among the highlights in the report, the estimated lesser prairie-chicken range-wide population increased to around 22,400 birds.

The USFWS placed the prairie chicken on the threatened species list early last year. Local New Mexico counties responded with a joint lawsuit with other entities against the listing.

The press release also said industry partners committed $45.9 million in fees to pay for mitigation actions, and landowners across the range agreed to conserve nearly 40,000 acres of habitat.

The prairie chicken range includes 40 million acres in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado.

“The results from the first year of RWP implementation clearly demonstrate that both industry and landowners are willing to conserve the species,” Van Pelt said in the release. “Private industry’s willingness to avoid and minimize impacts to lesser prairie-chickens is evident, and where those impacts were unavoidable, they paid mitigation fees to offset those impacts on cooperating landowners’ properties. As a result, all industry impacts were offset with conservation agreements during this first year.”

Ross Melinchuk, Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative council chairman, said in the press release that given time, habitat improvements will be seen with the return of more favorable weather conditions.

“WAFWA has made tremendous strides in implementing the Range-wide Conservation Plan (RWP) during this first year, and is on target to accomplish their 10-year goals as outlined in the RWP,” he said.