June 15, 2012, By Terrence Henry, &
Transcript of Interview done on StateImpact Texas a collaboration of local
public radio stations KUT Austin, KUHF Houston and NPR.
The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard is being kept off of
the endangered species list. For now.
The dunes sagebrush lizard is tiny, and brown,
and hides in the dunes of East New Mexico and West Texas. And until recently,
it seemed like it could threaten the drilling boom in the Permian basin as the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service considered adding the lizard to the endangered
species list.
But this week the oil and gas industry breathed
a huge sigh of relief when it was announced that the lizard won’t be added.
Thanks to a conservation plan brought forward by stakeholders in the region and
approved by the state comptroller, Fish & Wildlife was convinced that the
lizard would be just fine.
But how does the plan work? And what about it
convinced Fish & Wildlife that it would be enough to save the lizard? For
some answers, we turned to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, the Southwest Regional Director
for Fish & Wildlife.
Q: What is it about the Texas conservation plan
that led to the lizard not being listed by the Fish and Wildlife Department?
A: Well, I wanna go back to where the habitat
is. About two-thirds of the habitat was in New Mexico, and about one-third was
in Texas. And we had the candidate conservation agreements and candidate
conservation agreements with assurances that covered over 90 percent of the
habitat that is in New Mexico. The remaining one third of that habitat that was
critical for the survival of the species and also for the long-term
sustainability of the species didn’t have any protection at all in Texas, and
it was all on private lands.
And so we determined through our scientific
analysis that that part of the population was very important for the long-term
sustainability of the species, and we needed to get a candidate conservation
agreement with assurances, which are the agreements that we provide for private
lands established in Texas so we’d the same level of protection across the
landscape.
The Interview
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says Dunes
Sagebrush Lizard should not be considered endangered.
Q: Can you explain what a candidate conservation
agreement is?
A: Candidate conservation agreement basically is
a voluntary agreement process that brings people to the table that could
potentially have operations on the landscape that could impact lizard habitat.
And they sign on to these agreements, voluntarily of course, to do different
conservation measures that won’t impact the long term sustainability of the
species nor impact the habitat. And so these agreements are basically
agreements that, whether they are private landowner or gas and oil company,
that identifies up front avoidance of those habitats where the species lives.
Also, a fee system that puts in place opportunities to provide other
restoration habitat so that the species can distribute across the landscape.
And part of that agreement, what the companies
or the private landowners get, is the assurance from the Fish and Wildlife
Service that this is all it will take to get this work done. So the Fish and
Wildlife Service will not come back and say, ‘okay, you’ve done x, y. It was
enough last year, but now you need to do z. And that’s the assurances part.
Because they’ve committed to doing these conservation goals, objectives, and
standards, then that’s all they’ll have to do.
Q: Can you give us some examples of what those
conservation measures might be, depending upon the type of land use?
A: Probably the biggest one is avoidance. They
will avoid any impacts to those blow out dunes and swales where the habitat is
for the lizards. One of the things we found out that the industry can do is
drill directionally, and it doesn’t mean that they cannot drill for oil
underneath those habitats. They simply will create their paths in areas where
there is not lizard habitat. Then they’ll drill directionally to get those gas
and oil resources that they’re trying to bring to market. What we’re talking
about is avoiding putting things like caliche pads and other types of
infrastructure like oil pipes or things like that directly in the habitat
itself. So avoidance is probably one of the biggest ones.
I think that also from the standpoint of how it
is we look at those conservation goals and objectives, it very much is part of
an overall strategy to also monitor what’s happening in those areas to make
sure that those goals and objectives are not only being met but being
effective.
Q: And what measures are ranchers taking?
A: Probably on the ranchers’ part the biggest
thing is to try to get rid of mesquite. What mesquite does is that it puts down
deep roots and prevents those blow out dunes and swales from forming.
Therefore, it eliminates the habitat for those lizards. Most ranchers are more
than happy to get rid of mesquite primarily because it has a diminishing effect
on their ability to graze. If a rancher is grazing those properties, there’s
incentives that are built in to some of the agreements and through some of the
fees that are actually being paid that incentivize the rancher to go in and
take out the mesquite. That’s one of the benefits of private landowners signing
up in the agreements.
The grazing part of that really has a minimal
effect because the cows that are grazing don’t have enough to eat in those
blowouts, so they’re not going to spend a lot of time in there. And even if
they’re grazing on shinnery oak…I’m told if you eat it at a particular time
it’s kinda poisonous, so that’s one of the reasons why a lot the ranchers were
taking out a lot of the shinnery oak. But now we recognize that shinnery oak is
very important in terms of stabilizing some of those blowout dunes.
Q: Can putting the lizard on the list be
revisited in the future?
A: Absolutely. The reason why we chose not to
list it is because we have the kind of coverages through these candidate
conservation agreements and candidate conservation agreements with assurances
that we feel are going to protect the lizard and lead to long-term
sustainability of that population. If the measures that we’ve designed do not
accomplish those goals, then we still have the responsibility and have the
option of bringing up potential listing for the lizard again. But we’re fairly
confident with the commitment on the part of the people who have signed on and
made commitment of resources that they’re committed to that process and so are
we. And we’re pretty certain, about as certain as we possibly can be, that it
will work.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: Whenever you talk about big gas and oil and
you talk about a listed species, particularly a reptile – a little-bitty lizard
– there’s always the opportunity for cynicism. There’s always the opportunity
to say that big government is coming in and trying to tell us what to do, and
being over-officious and regulatory. I think this is a classic example, a
monumental example, of when people sit down, talk to one another, communicate
what it is that they need to continue the economic development on a landscape,
and have an opportunity to listen to what it is that needs to take place on
that landscape to protect species of this ilk. When they get together and can
reach agreement then it works. So there isn’t this situation where the
government is being dictatorial. It very much is a collaborative process that
everybody gets something out of. We very much would like to see that take place
because it creates less of a polarizing situation between people that are
trying to make a living on the landscape and the resources, particularly the
species and habitat that are dependent on that same landscape.
This interview was edited for clarity and
content.
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