Federal wildlife authorities from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday, Nov.16 the lesser prairie chicken is now threatened across its Kansas and Oklahoma habitats.

In New Mexico and Texas, it will be listed as endangered.

The threatened and endangered listings mean the lesser prairie chicken is considered near extinction in New Mexico and the southwest Texas panhandle and at risk of endangerment in Kansas, Oklahoma and the northeast Texas panhandle.

Wildlife advocates have been fighting for years to protect the bird.

The lesser prairie chicken lives in prairie grass and shrubs in western Kansas and numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

U.S. wildlife officials estimate 90 percent of their habitat is gone and 32,000 lesser prairie chickens remain.

Amy Lueders, USFWS’s southwest regional director said in a news release their decline is a sign native grasslands and prairies are in peril.

“These habitats support a diversity of wildlife and are valued for water quality, climate resilience, grazing, hunting and recreation,” she said.

In October the Center for Biological Diversity sued USFWS for moving too slow after the the initial proposal for the listing a year and a half ago.

USFWS will work with states to determine areas of critical habitat. .Protecting the lesser prairie chicken hasn’t been without controversy in Kansas the last few years.

They thrive in swaths of unbroken tracts of native grasses but conserving the habitat can be a threat to farmers, ranchers and energy producers.

Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall; along with U.S. Rep. Tracy Mann condemned the USFWS decision. They said it would harm farmers, ranchers and energy producers.

Marshall said the announcement was disappointing and a reminder the administration favors government micromanagement of agriculture and heavy-handed regulation in their war against energy producers “instead of working with landowners to promote continued voluntary conservation efforts.”

Sen. Jerry Moran said Kansas and surrounding states are committed to preserving the lesser prairie chicken and its habit and have contributed millions of public and private dollars to conservation efforts.

“This work has resulted in successfully conserving habitat area and increasing the population of the bird,” he said. “The choice to list the lesser prairie chicken as threatened despite voluntary, locally-driven conservation efforts will negatively impact critical industries in Kansas and will remove any incentive for similar local efforts for wildlife conservation in the future.”

Rep. Tracy Mann said the final ruling was more than another example of federal overreach.

“It is a proxy war on American agriculture and energy sectors that are vital to our economy,” she said. “Farmers, ranchers and landowners are the original conservationists, and the federal government should get out of their way to let them do what they do best.”

Kris Kobach, newly elected attorney general, said he plans to challenge the decision when he takes office in January because the move seriously impairs building wind farms and pushes oil and natural gas production “to the brink of extinction.”

“What a surprise they waited until after the election to announce this move,” he said. “As attorney general, I will fight this illegal action in court.”

USFWS has worked with nearly 900 landowners to conserve about 1.6 million acres of prairie for the birds.

The lesser prairie chicken was previously listed as threatened in 2014. It was later reversed by a court order.

In 2019, The Center for Biological Diversity and two other conservation groups sued the federal government. They claimed the Department of the Interior and USFWS were in violation of the Endangered Species Act by failing to make a ruling on a 2016 petition to list the birds as endangered.

In May 2021 Moran and Marshall urged the U.S. Department of Interior Secretary not to list the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act.

In July 2021, the senators with Rep. Mann requested a 90-day extension to the comment period for the proposed listing.

The lesser prairie chickens are iconic for their unique mating ritual. Males dance trying to attract hens each spring. The crow-size, terrestrial bird is a rare form of a grouse and known for their spring courtship rituals that include the flamboyant male dances. They make a cacophony of clucking, cackling and booming sounds.

Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate for the Center for Biological diversity said the listing was terrific news for the fascinating birds and the overlooked and much exploited prairies where they reside.

“We wish that the Fish and Wildlife Service hadn’t delayed this protection for 27 years, because quicker action would have meant a lot more lesser prairie chickens alive in a lot more places today,” he said. “We’ll watch the next steps closely to ensure there are also strong protections for the wild places where these birds live.”