Grouse study hot topic

STAFF WRITER

[email protected]

Eastern New Mexico researchers are working to determine the effects of fire on lesser prairie chickens, a species whose numbers have declined dramatically.

But this time, their research methods involve starting fires.

Sand Ranch, 35 miles east of Roswell, is where a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey’s New Mexico Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit and the Bureau of Land Management is happening, according to a press release by the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative. The area is described as a “stronghold” for the lesser prairie chickens, which provides “long-term protection to at least 25,000 acres of high-quality habitat for lesser prairie chickens.”

The research, according to the press release, has the BLM starting fires rather than putting them out. This will help make the habitat varied for the chickens, allowing them to have open areas for lekking, which is when the males and females meet to display and breed.

According to Randy Howard, a BLM wildlife biologist working on the project, the prescribed burns at Sand Ranch are being conducted in place of naturally occurring fires, which haven’t happened since 2009.

“Now, with the complexity of roads and different management styles of vegetation, they’re not really able to get going. Fighting fire is one of the big things. If a fire starts, it’s been the practice to immediately go put it out,” Howard said. “It’s always been part of the system, but it’s been taken out or limited, so we’re trying to put it back in the system and monitor lesser prairie chicken response as well as vegetation.”

Although the research is in its infancy (the project will span the next three years), Howard said that there have already been some results.

“This spring was the first two burns that we’ve done, and so far the chickens have moved their lek from the unburned area into the burned area,” he said. “They’re using it for a lek now, and that’s really where we’re at. Hens are starting to break off from the leks and initiate nests.”

Howard hopes the timeline for the research will help make the landscape more varied, creating a more ideal habitat for the chickens.

“To have a really healthy landscape, you need a mosaic pattern. We’re doing these smaller blocks year-to-year-to-year. This year was stage one, so you’ve got your burned area where they’ll move in and start lekking, and then we hope that next year, it’s more intermediate where it’s good cover, but it’s still open for the chicks to go in and forage,” he said. “In three years, it should be back to a really dense grassland, given average rainfall, where they will start using it for nesting. By that time we will have burned other units.”