Lesser Prairie Chicken Rule Remanded

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A federal judge in Texas has, for a second time, vacated a Biden administration rule that listed the lesser prairie chicken as endangered and remanded the rule back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a lawsuit filed by the cattle and oil industries.

In April 2025, U.S. District Judge David Counts in the U.S. District Court for the District of Western Texas, vacated the rule in a lawsuit filed by the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition and several Kansas farm entities.

On Tuesday, Counts granted the Trump administration's motion to vacate and remand the rule back to the USFWS in a separate and similar lawsuit.

That lawsuit was filed on behalf of cattle and oil interests, including the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association, the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, the Kansas Livestock Association, the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association.

The USFWS told the court it plans to undertake a new rulemaking on the lesser prairie chicken.

"Fish and wildlife's concession points to serious error at the very foundation of its rule," the court said in its Aug. 12, 2025, ruling.

"Mere remand would not cure this error. Fish and wildlife therefore commits no handwaving when it also concedes that this failure causes the final listing rule to be 'unlawful' and therefore 'not in accordance to law.'"

USFWS told the court that the agency's failure to "support the identification of the lesser prairie chicken as distinct population segments taints the findings" by the Biden administration that those populations were listable as endangered.

USFWS said it plans to complete a new finding on the lesser prairie chicken by Nov. 30, 2026, in response to a 2016 listing petition by environmental groups that gave rise to the Biden administration rule.

Counts said in his ruling that in the meantime, conservation programs already in place for the bird would continue to provide protection.

"As for the 16 conservation programs in place, many existed before the 2022 listing decision are intended to directly mitigate threats to the species and its habitat and are administered by a variety of federal agencies, including fish and wildlife, state agencies and private groups," the court said.

"These efforts are not thought to be inadequate over the short term."

In the same order, the court denied as moot other motions to intervene on behalf of the USFWS filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Texas Campaign for the Environment and LPC Conservation LLC.

LPC is a portfolio of conservation banks set up to support the lesser prairie chicken, offering mitigation credits to offset habitat loss with investments to the tune of over $40 million in private capital.

"It claims that its business depends on the bird's listing under the ESA (Endangered Species Act)," the court said. "Without the bird's listing, so it goes, 'there will be little or no demand for conservation credits.'"

The Biden administration finalized the rule on Nov. 25, 2022, extending ESA protections to what was the threatened northern distinct population of the lesser prairie chicken.

That move meant that livestock producers in parts of five states were required to create grazing plans mainly to protect themselves from conducting activities deemed as harmful to the species.

Read more on DTN:

"Court Ends Lesser Prairie Chicken Rule," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

"KS Farms Sue on Lesser Prairie Chicken," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

"Lesser Prairie Chicken Cases in Flux," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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