Three environmental groups aren’t squawking around—the groups recently sued the Trump administration regarding the lesser prairie chicken.
The Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, and WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. on June 12 against Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The groups claim that the administration has failed to protect the “severely imperiled” lesser prairie chickens under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The environmental groups allege that the USFWS failed to complete a 12-month finding to determine if the bird was eligible for protection under the ESA.
USFWS formally removed the lesser prairie chicken from the ESA List of Endangered Species in July 2016, and the plaintiffs in question submitted a petition in September 2016 to grant the bird protection in its most isolated states.
In November 2016, USFWS issued a positive 90-day finding that listing may be warranted, and was assessing the bird’s status, according to the lawsuit document. A 12-month finding on the petition was due in September 2017 but was not issued by USFWS.
The lawsuit states the environmental groups were told by USFWS on June 4, 2019, that a 12-month finding would not be completed until at least 2021.
The groups allege that the failure to make a finding on the bird’s listing status “poses actual and imminent harm to the protected interests of plaintiffs and their members.” The plaintiffs request the USFWS be found in violation of the ESA and ordered to publish a proposed rule by a certain date. — Anna Miller, WLJ editor
