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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 103 / Tuesday, June 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules are approximately 120,000 ac 49,000
ha of introduced grasses and legumes dispersed primarily within the MixedGrass and Shinnery Oak Ecoregions FSA 2020b, unpublished data.
At the State level, programs provide direct technical and financial cost-share assistance to private landowners interested in voluntarily implementing conservation management practices to benefit species of greatest conservation needincluding the lesser prairiechicken. Additionally, a variety of Statelevel conservation efforts acquire and manage lands or incentivize management by private landowners for the benefit of the lesser prairie-chicken.
Below is a summary for each State within the range of the lesser prairiechicken. For a complete description of each, see the SSA report. All conservation measures discussed in the SSA report were fully considered in this proposed rule.
Within the State of Kansas, conservation efforts are administered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism KDWPT, The Nature Conservancy, and the Services Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program PFW. KDWPT has targeted lesser prairie-chicken habitat improvements on private lands by leveraging landowner cost-share contributions, industry and nongovernmental organizations cash contributions, and agency funds toward several federally funded grant programs. The KDWPT has implemented conservation measures over 22,000 ac 8,900 ha through the Landowner Incentive Program, over 18,000 ac 7,285 ha through the State Wildlife Grant Private Landowner Program, 30,000 ac 12,140 ha through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, and 12,000 ac 4,855 ha through the Habitat First Program within the range of the lesser prairie-chicken.
Additionally, KDWPT was provided an opportunity through contributions from the Comanche Pool Prairie Resource Foundation to leverage additional Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funds in 2016 to direct implementation of 19,655 ac 7,954 ha. The Nature Conservancy in Kansas manages the 18,060-ac 7,309-ha Smoky Valley Ranch. The Nature Conservancy also serves as the easement holder for nearly 34,000 ac 13,760 ha of properties that are enrolled under the RWP. The Nature Conservancy is also working to use funds from an NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program that have resulted in nearly 50,000 ac 20,235 ha on three ranches either with secured or in-process conservation easements. The Services PFW program has executed 95 private lands
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agreements with direct and indirect improvements on about 173,000 ac 70,011 ha of private lands benefitting conservation of the lesser prairiechicken in Kansas.
In 2009, Colorado Parks and Wildlife CPW initiated its Lesser PrairieChicken Habitat Improvement Program that provides cost-sharing to private landowners who participate in practices such as deferred grazing around active leks, enhancement of fields enrolled in CRP and cropland-to-grassland habitat conversion. Since program inception, CPW has completed 37,051 ac 14,994
ha of habitat treatments. The Nature Conservancy holds permanent conservation easements on multiple ranches that make up the Big Sandy complex. Totaling approximately 48,940
ac 19,805 ha, this complex is managed with lesser prairie-chicken as a conservation objective and perpetually protects intact sand sagebrush and short-grass prairie communities. The USFS currently manages the Comanche Lesser Prairie-Chicken Habitat Zoological Area, as part of the Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands, which encompass an area of 10,177 ac 4,118 ha in Colorado that is managed to benefit the lesser prairiechicken USFS 2014, p. 9. In 2016, CPW and KDWPT partnered with Kansas State University and USFS to initiate a 3-year translocation project to restore lesser prairie-chicken to the Comanche National Grasslands Colorado and Cimarron National Grasslands Kansas. Beginning in the fall of 2016 and concluding with the 2019 spring lekking season, the partnership trapped and translocated 411 lesser prairie-chickens from the Short-Grass/CRP Ecoregion in Kansas to the Sand Sagebrush Ecoregion. During April and May 2020 lek counts, Colorado and Kansas biologists and technicians found 115 male birds on 20
active leks in the landscape around the Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands Rossi 2020, pers. comm..
In 2013, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation ODWC was issued a 25-year enhancement of survival permit pursuant to section 10a1A of the ESA that included an umbrella CCAA between the Service and ODWC for the lesser prairie-chicken in 14 Oklahoma counties 78 FR 14111, March 4, 2013. As of 2019, there were 84 participants with a total of 399,225
ac 161,561 ha enrolled in the ODWC
CCAA, with 357,654 ac 144,737
enrolled as conservation acres ODWC
2020. The ODWC owns six wildlife management areas totaling approximately 75,000 ac 30,351 ha in the range of the lesser prairie-chicken,
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though only a portion of each wildlife management area can be considered as conservation acres for lesser prairiechicken. The Services PFW program has funded a shared position with ODWC for 6 years to conduct CCAA
monitoring and, in addition, has provided funding for on-the-ground work in the lesser prairie-chicken range.
Since 2017, the Oklahoma PFW program has implemented 51 private lands agreements on about 10,603 ac 4,291
ha for the benefit of the lesser prairiechicken in Oklahoma. The Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma manages the 4,050-ac 1,640-ha Four Canyon Preserve in Ellis County for ecological health to benefit numerous short-grass prairie species, including the lesser prairie-chicken. In 2017, The Nature Conservancy acquired a conservation easement on 1,784 ac 722 ha in Woods County. The Conservancy is seeking to permanently protect additional acreage in the region through the acquisition of conservation easements.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department TPWD worked with the Service and landowners to develop the first statewide umbrella CCAA for the lesser prairie-chicken in Texas, which was finalized in 2006. The Texas CCAA
covers 50 counties, largely encompassing the Texas Panhandle and South Plains regions. Total landowner participation by the close of January 2020 was 91 properties totaling approximately 657,038 ac 265,894 ha enrolled in 15 counties TPWD 2020, entire. The Services PFW program and the TPWD have actively collaborated on range management programs designed to provide cost-sharing for implementation of habitat improvements for lesser prairie-chicken.
The Service provided funding to TPWD
to support a Landscape Conservation Coordinator position for the Panhandle and Southern High Plains region, as well as funding to support Landowner Incentive Program projects targeting lesser prairie-chicken habitat improvements brush control and grazing management in this region.
More than $200,000 of Service funds were committed in 2010, and an additional $100,000 was committed in 2011.
Since 2008, Texas has addressed lesser prairie-chicken conservation on 14,068 ac 5,693 ha under the Landowner Incentive Program. Typical conservation measures include native plant restoration, control of exotic or invasive vegetation, prescribed burning, selective brush management, and prescribed grazing. The PFW program in Texas has executed 66 private lands agreements on about 131,190 ac 53,091

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