Damn prairie chickens have been making me nervous for awhile now.

[Shadowrider]

I read the report (RWP) a couple of weeks ago that's mentioned in here, and even some of what the committee wants to do makes me nervous. But now the .fed seems to be riding herd on the several states in the range. With this administration how much you wanna bet they continue to do so? This has very serious ramifications for landowner rights involved. If you read the report and see the distances that prairie chickens stay away from roads, high lines, buildings, pumping units, etc. you will be "nervous" too. The bottom line is that I didn't see an answer to the problem without very major land use restrictions over very large areas.

Western Governors urge USFWS to approve state conservation mechanism for lesser prairie chicken

Governors of five western states have urged the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to approve the Range-wide Conservation Plan for the Lesser Prairie Chicken (RWP) as the key conservation mechanism for the species.
The Lesser Prairie Chicken is found in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. In December of 2012, the USFWS proposed to list the species as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.
The Western Governors who signed on to the Aug. 2 letter to USFWS - John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Sam Brownback (Kan.), Mary Fallin (Okla.), Susana Martinez (N.M.), and Rick Perry (Texas) - are instead urging Dan Ashe, the Director of USFWS, to make use of existing public-private partnerships to conserve the species rather than listing the species as threatened. Such a listing can unduly restrict land use and state land management.

Specifically, the Governors point to the RWP, which is the work of wildlife experts who comprised the Lesser Prairie Chicken Interstate Working Group. The Governors want the USFWS to approve the RWP as a conservation enrollment program for the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a step that could preclude the need to list the species as threatened. Recently, the USFWS extended the timeline for final determination of the species' proposed listing to March of 2014.

The Governors' letter echoes themes in existing Western Governors' Association (WGA) policy resolutions, including:
Policy Resolution 11-10, Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation, which urged a policy of cooperative management among the states to maintain and restore LPC populations while encouraging responsible development;
Policy Resolution 13-08, The Endangered Species Act, which stated that USFWS should enhance the role of state governments in recovering species, such as through the development of conservation plans;
Policy Resolution 13-04, Conserving Wildlife and Crucial Habitat in the West, in which the Governors urged federal agencies to use state fish and wildlife data and analyses as principal sources to inform natural resource decisions.

The RWP uses state fish and wildlife data for its conservation strategy, including the Southern Great Plains Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (SGP CHAT), which depicts crucial habitat areas for the Lesser Prairie Chicken. Part of the RWP conservation strategy is to use the CHAT to identify areas where habitat improvements should be concentrated. The SGP CHAT is one of many GIS-tools being developed by Western states that will depict crucial wildlife habitat areas in a single map layer that energy, transmission and land-use planners can use in the beginning stages of project planning. WGA also is supporting development of a Western Governors' CHAT, which will depict crucial wildlife habitat across the West when it launches this December.


News Contacts: Michael Bergin or Micah Holmes (405) 521-3856
Website: www.wildlifedepartment.com
E-mail: [email protected]

This program receives Federal assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and thus prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and sex (gender), pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. To request an accommodation or informational material in an alternative format, please contact the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation by phone at (405) 521-3855. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or service, please contact: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, Attention: Civil Rights Coordinator for Public Access, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22203.

 

[Okie4570]

Here's about a weeks worth of reading here from the Oklahoma plan. http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/lepc/cons_plan.htm

I guess it was greater's that we used to hunt north of Pawhuska when I was a kid? Can't remember what their legs looked like.

 

[Shadowrider]

Here's about a weeks worth of reading here from the Oklahoma plan. http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/lepc/cons_plan.htm

I guess it was greater's that we used to hunt north of Pawhuska when I was a kid? Can't remember what their legs looked like.

Yep that's where I was reading.
My concern comes from this:

The science team recommended a 10-year population goal of 5,000 LEPC in Oklahoma.
To provide for this population, the science team recommended establishing 15 core conservation areas
for LEPC arranged in complexes, with suitable linkage zones to allow movements among the core areas.
Each core area should average approximately 50,000 acres in size with at least 70% of the area (35,000
acres for a 50,000 acre area) being good to high quality LEPC habitat.

Emphasis mine. And also bear in mind that this is only Oklahoma that they are talking about. Throw in all the other states and we are talking serious acreage. I much prefer the states doing it rather than the feds. The states still have to answer to their citizens, unlike the .fed these days. We all know what's happened out on the left coast over various species. The feds can disappear every penny of land value from the owners overnight if they wish.

 

[dennishoddy]

The Lesser Prairie Chicken in Oklahoma



The lesser prairie chicken is identified as a species of greatest conservation need in Oklahoma and is a candidate for federal listing as threatened, range-wide. The sand shinnery and sand sagebrush native rangelands of northwest Oklahoma are crucial for survival of this species. The same area also provides some of Oklahoma′s most abundant sources of energy including wind, oil and natural gas. Efforts to harvest this energy are projected to rapidly intensify over the next few years.

Researchers have found that lesser prairie chickens, particularly nesting hens, avoid vertical structures because they are often used as perches by predators such as hawks, eagles and owls. Habitat fragmentation caused by a number of factors including transmission lines, roads and highways, buildings and tree encroachment into prairie habitats, as well as conversion of native rangeland to cropland or non-native vegetation, can all be detrimental to lesser prairie chickens. Steps are being taken to avoid endangering Oklahoma′s few remaining lesser prairie chickens.

The unique habitats found in northwest Oklahoma are invaluable to wildlife as well as to wind energy development, so the Wildlife Department and energy developers have to work together to ensure that our state′s wildlife heritage remains strong.


We dont have the greaters in Osage county.

In the 80's the population was so huge that opening day there was a shooter on every fence post for thousands of acres.

Every 1/4 mile was a game warden in civilian clothes to make sure the rules were followed. That is a little BS, but it seem'd like it.
In the Hayday of the chicken shoots the local community's like Shilder and Grainola put on breakfasts, and lunch for the hunters. people camped, and it was huge!

The Eden ranch charged $4 per fence post. You got a little card to show to the folks that checked.

My Great Uncle, and Great Aunt that I spent summers with in Grainola had a section of ground coming into the town, and had a section on the other side of town.

During the nesting season for the birds, he did not allow anything but horses to work the cattle. The horses would side step the nests on the ground.

The local ranchers all did the same.
They took care of their birds. My relatives have passed and the land is sold.

I'm a friend of the ODW Game Ranger in Osage county. He says the birds are coming back. They don't know what caused the decline after years of testing, but "coming back" works for me.

 

[Deer Slayer]

Amen to that

 

[Okie4570]

Thanks Dennis I assumed greaters, I was looking at a range map and I've got a friend who runs cattle in the Flint Hills of Ks who still has a large number of greaters.

Pretty bold talk about the land contol, given that the states north of us are still hunting both species. This is from the Ks dept of wildlife.

Greater and Lesser Prairie Chicken

Greater and Lesser Prairie Chicken Kansas currently harbors two species of prairie grouse. The greater prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus cupido) is much more abundant than the lesser prairie chicken ( T. pallidicinctus). A third species of prairie grouse, the sharp-tailed grouse ( T. phasianellus) disappeared from it’s historic western Kansas range during the droughts of the 1930’s. Attempts to restore sharptails in the 1980’s and 1990’s, while initially promising, ultimately proved unsuccessful. Prairie chickens may be best known for their unique spring breeding behavior. Early in spring, groups of males assemble on communal mating grounds known to biologists as leks. The low, booming sounds produced by greater prairie chicken cocks accounts for the common reference to their leks as "booming grounds." Similarly, the higher-pitched, bubbly sounds made by lesser prairie chicken cocks has conferred the term "gobbling grounds" to their leks. On a quiet spring morning, these sounds can carry as much as two miles across the open prairie, serving as an audible beacon to prairie chicken hens. Males of either species compete with each other through a series of spectacular displays, calls, and sparring for the coveted inner-most territories on the lek. The one or two males most successful in attaining and defending these small territories typically perform about 90% of the matings that occur on the lek. Unlike the polygamous ring-necked pheasant or the more monogamous bobwhite, prairie chickens do not form lasting behavioral bonds between cocks and hens. Greater prairie chickens currently occur in parts of 10 states, but by far the largest populations occur in Kansas and Nebraska. The traditional stronghold of greaters in Kansas is the Flint Hills, a roughly 50-mile-wide band of tallgrass prairie that extends from the Oklahoma border northward nearly to the Nebraska line in the eastern third of the state. The tallgrass prairie of the Flint Hills was saved from the conversion to cropland that consumed of most of North America’s original tallgrass prairie by its shallow soils and underlying limestone that resisted the plow. Strong greater prairie chicken populations also exist in the mixed prairies of the Smoky Hills in northcentral Kansas. Significant numbers of greaters can be found as well in the grassland breaks that parallel the streams of northwest and west-central Kansas. These western Kansas populations have increased and expanded over the last two decades, particularly with the addition of mixed grasslands seeded through the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Lesser prairie chickens are indeed a bit smaller than their greater counterparts. Kansas currently harbors the most extensive remaining range and largest population of the lesser prairie chicken among the disjunct populations found in the 5 states where it occurs (KS, TX, NM, OK, CO). Greatest densities of lessers in Kansas occur in the remaining sandsage prairies of southwest Kansas, but extensive populations also occur in the mixed prairies of the Red Hills. Lessers also have also increased in number and expanded their range where seeded CRP grasslands are present in close proximity to native mixed prairies of the Pawnee, Walnut, and Smoky Hill drainages in west-central Kansas. This expansion of lesser and greater prairie chicken populations in west-central Kansas has brought these two historically overlapping species back together in a zone ranging from 20 to 40 miles in width. Some mixed leks with cocks of both species occur in this zone of overlap. Two distinct forms of prairie chicken hunting occur in Kansas. In the eastern half of the state (east of U.S. Highway 281), an early season (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) allows hunters with dogs to take advantage of the tendency for young greaters to hold well at this time of year. Later in the fall, chickens gather into larger groups, often making it more difficult for hunters with dogs to get within gun range. By fall, many prairie chickens will begin feeding in cut sorghum, corn, or soybean fields. Since these birds often fly directly to specific fields when they leave their roosts in early morning, hunters can get pass shooting opportunities by positioning themselves at the margin of the field closest to the roosting area. This pass shooting is the more common way of taking greater prairie chickens during Kansas’ regular season (3rd Saturday in Nov. to Jan. 31st, Daily Limit = 2). The prairie chicken hunting season in southwest Kansas, where most lesser prairie chickens are found, is more restrictive in both season length (3rd Saturday in Nov. to Dec. 31) and allowable daily bag (Limit = 1). Since 1990, estimated greater prairie chicken harvests in Kansas have varied from a high of 59,000 in 1991 to a low of only 9,000 in 2002. Since hunting regulations were further restricted for southwest Kansas in 1995, harvest of lesser prairie chickens has typically amounted to a few hundred birds annually. Prairie chicken adults are exceptionally hardy birds and are seldom significantly threatened by severe winter weather. Should deep snows occur, their ability to dive into the snow for roosting helps shield them from cold temperatures and wind chills above the snow surface. More significant weather threats to greater prairie chickens sometimes come in the form of excessive, drenching rains during nesting or when chicks are very small and most vulnerable to chilling. Drought is probably the greatest weather threat to lesser prairie chickens. Normal conditions in the range of the lesser prairie chicken varies from arid to semi-arid, so significant droughts can severely impact their habitat and production. Historically, conversion of native prairies to cropland has accounted for the greatest loss of prairie chicken habitat in Kansas and elsewhere. More recently, other forms of human land use and development have posed additional threats. Particularly in the Flint Hills, the thorough annual burning of vast areas of tallgrass prairie associated with intensive, early cattle grazing in May, June, and July leaves few places for ground nesting birds like prairie chickens to successfully nest. Greater prairie chicken populations in the Flint Hills have declined significantly since this grazing system became widespread. However, less frequent burning, ideally once in 3 years or twice in 5 years, is critical to the health of the prairie and for prairie chickens. Possibly a more serious threat to greater prairie chickens and other grassland birds is the spread of invasive trees like eastern red cedar, Osage orange, and others into parts of our Kansas prairies ( read more: Tree Invasion). Ironically, this has resulted from too little application of controlled burning in some regions and from failure of land managers to quickly recognize and respond to the threat tree invasion poses to prairie, livestock production, and grassland wildlife. Recent radio-telemetry studies conducted by Kansas State University researchers in southwest Kansas has highlighted yet another threat to prairie chickens. These workers documented a distinct avoidance of man-made structures by lesser prairie chickens. Generally, most prairie chicken hens avoided nesting or rearing their broods within a quarter-mile of power lines and within a third-mile of improved roads. Buildings, including a power plant and gas booster stations, were avoided from anywhere between two-thirds of a mile to one mile, depending on their size. This information, coupled with similar avoidance behavior noted in other species, suggests there is cause for concern over negative impacts on prairie chickens of other types of structures as well, including communications towers, wind farms, and suburban homes. Fragmentation of the open grassland horizons preferred by prairie chickens appears to represent yet another man-made threat to these species habitats. Maintaining extensive tracts of open, well-managed prairie is critical to the conservation of prairie chickens. In Kansas, where 97% of the land is privately owned, ranchers are, unquestionably, the most important stewards of the prairies. Wildlife conservationists can best help conserve prairie chickens by forming alliances with ranchers to assist them in preventing tree invasion, to help them resist economic pressures to sell their lands, and to test new, economically-viable management systems that could prove more friendly to grassland wildlife. One such system with great promise is the "Patch Burning / Patch Grazing" system developed and tested by researchers at Oklahoma State University. Traditional grazing systems remain very viable for prairie health, provided they incorporate periodic fire ( not annual burning) and light to moderate stocking rates.

 

[A5Sooner]

Seems like the same things that have affected the quail; land segregation, avian predators, monoculture crops, etc, etc.

 

[dennishoddy]

Seems like the same things that have affected the quail; land segregation, avian predators, monoculture crops, etc, etc.

Whats amazing is that the land in Osage county that we hunted for generations is the same as it was in the 50's. Nothing has changed. The grass is still the same, the pastures still grow blue stem shoulder high on a bull. The locals blame crop dusters, but there is not much farming that goes on. Its all cattle ranches.

 

[Shadowrider]

Whats amazing is that the land in Osage county that we hunted for generations is the same as it was in the 50's. Nothing has changed. The grass is still the same, the pastures still grow blue stem shoulder high on a bull. The locals blame crop dusters, but there is not much farming that goes on. Its all cattle ranches.

I have a cousin by marriage that had family in Sedan, KS. They hunted a bunch there and in northern Osage county. It was a Thanksgiving tradition for them. There is no telling how many birds they killed, they sacked them up every year. And those days are long gone it seems.

 

[dennishoddy]

Generations of hunting family's grew up hunting Osage county. It is no more.