Threatened chicken


"The lesser prairie-chicken is in dire straits," said Dan Ashe, director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Knowing the threats the lesser prairie chicken faces remain and are expected to remain in the future, it is likely the bird will move to the endangered list at some point. As such, labeling it threatened was justified in the federal bureaucracy's line of thinking.

That thinking -- and the threatened label, was greeted with disappointment by virtually everybody at the state and local level already heavily invested in the bird's survival.

"That is bad news," said Jim Pitman with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

"This wasn't the decision we hoped to hear," said KDWPT Secretary Robin Jennison.

"This is an overreach on the part of the federal government," said Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, "and I am concerned about the effect this designation will have on Kansans and the Kansas economy."

"We will fight to undo this foolish and overly prescriptive rule," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

"The Obama administration is threatening the private property rights of farmers and ranchers, as well as threatening needed energy production," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.

We get the point. Nobody likes the listing.

But did anybody actually read what USFWS recommended?


The federal government not only recognizes what the various entities in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas -- where the lesser prairie chicken resides -- have developed to help protect the species, USFWS very specifically states the programs in place are what is needed.

How is that overreach? How are farmers and ranchers threatened if they continue doing what they voluntarily signed up for? If utilities and oil and gas companies aren't subject to any additional requirements, how can energy production be affected?

For a change, the federal government was using common sense and letting the people and organizations closest to the problem have the authority to solve it. Even the role of ongoing drought was acknowledged. It strikes us the politicians and bureaucrats so quick to attack the ruling should have been thanking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services instead.


Editorial by Patrick Lowry