Panhandle Meeting On Multi-State Lesser Prairie Chicken Plan Reset

As an update to an earlier news announcement, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department  postponed a meeting that had been set for Feb. 25 in Morton, Texas to Monday, March 4, because of snow and high winds. The meeting purpose is to discuss the draft range wide conservation plan for the lesser prairie chicken. The plan represents a multi-state effort to conserve the bird and its habitat, and to address its proposed listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to publish a final rule on the status of the chicken in September. The rescheduled Morton meeting will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, March 4 in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center at 200 West Taylor Avenue. A similar meeting in Austin involves a diverse set of invited stakeholders, though it is open to any interested parties. The Austin meeting take places at 2 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 28 at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department headquarters, 4200 Smith School Road. At the meetings, Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists will discuss the plan and answer questions about how it might be implemented in the Southern High Plains region of the state. The draft plan can be viewed on the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies website. Comments about the draft plan may be submitted via email to Jan Caufield of the Ecological Management and Research Institute at [email protected]. The deadline to submit comments is March 8.