Lankford Hosts Lesser Prairie Chicken Roundtable in OKC

Press Release

Representative James Lankford (R-Okla.) today hosted a roundtable discussion among local business and industry leaders, state officials and other interested parties to discuss conservation plans for the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC), newly named to the "threatened" list under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

"Today's roundtable is a great example of how federal, state and local stakeholders can come together to confront federal regulatory burdens and assess changes needed," said Lankford.

On March 27, 2014, the LPC was listed as "threatened" by the Obama Administration despite the efforts of five states where the LPC lives to proactively design comprehensive conservation strategies and enroll 11 million acres for conservation purposes--an unprecedented action and accomplishment--undertaken entirely by state and local stakeholders. Lankford, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives ESA Working Group, has worked since 2012 to strike a balance between conservation and economic development without implementing excessive regulations on the agriculture and energy industries.

"Questions about the efficacy of the ESA remain, especially since the law's hefty requirements on local industry and private property owners have only yielded an abysmal two percent success rate for species recovery," observed Lankford. "Currently companies are legally required to pay tens of thousands of dollars to implement this law's conservation requirements once a species is listed. This roundtable discussion brought together private businesses and state and federal wildlife conservationists to figure a reasonable way forward.

"I am grateful for the participation of today's attendees who provided input and questions on the best way forward to implement conservation strategies for the LPC, and I will continue to work to press for permanent legislative changes to the process," concluded Lankford.

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