On April 28, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service released a three-year strategy to coordinate voluntary restoration of 500,000 acres of habitat for the lesser prairie-chicken. The strategy outlines how the agency will work with private landowners within the five-state region to restore grassland and prairie ecosystems; about 95 percent of lesser prairie-chicken habitat is found on private lands. Restoration will focus on the five key threats to the bird ? degraded rangeland health, invasive red cedar and mesquite, cultivation of grazing lands, and the lack of fire in grasslands habitats. The conservation efforts will be initiated through the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative (LPCI), part of agency's Working Lands for Wildlife partnership.

"Across the country, we're seeing firsthand how farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are voluntarily stepping forward to aid wildlife species," NRCS Chief Jason Weller said. "By adopting conservation systems, agricultural producers in the southern Great Plains can restore top-notch lesser prairie-chicken habitat while also making working lands more productive and resilient to wildfire and climatic extremes."

In related news, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on May 10 filed a motion to dismiss its challenge of a federal court decision that had stripped the species of its threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. The agency had listed the lesser prairie-chicken as threatened in April 2014, but that decision was overturned by federal court in September 2015. The court ruled that the agency did not adequately evaluate the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' Rangewide Plan when making the listing decision. The FWS will be reassessing the status of the species based on current scientific data and conservation efforts.