[music playing] european settlersfound the great plains to be vast and desolate. by the end of the20th century, it was becoming anendangered ecosystem. these grasslands includethe permian basin, an important region forlivestock grazing and oil and gas production.
the area is also home tothe lesser prairie chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard. by the late 1990s,habitat fragmentation and shinnery oak removalwas changing the landscape. the competing landuses had these species headed towards anendangered species listing. this had a lot ofpeople asking, what does the future holdfor conservation in the southern great plains?
shinnery oak is the only habitatfor the dunes sagebrush lizard and for the chickens,the importance is they use these areas forbreeding, brooding, nest rearing, and it doesprovide the basis for the habitatfor both species. large landscape conservationfor prairie chickens is extremely important. their home ranges can be20,000 acres for a population, and so it's important to doconservation on that scale.
the lizards are sospecialized for living here that they only live inthe open patches of sand. and the size andshape and arrangement of these dune blowoutsin the landscape is directly linked to thevitality of that neighborhood. it's their home. you have a diversity ofvegetation for not only winter cover, winter food. the shinnery oak providean enormous amount
of food sourcefor these species. and so it's a very uniquesystem that actually encompasses almost all of theliving requirements that are necessary for bothspecies to survive here. a lot of ranchers, when fishand wildlife service or you talk about endangered, you justmention the endangered species act, i mean, the hair on theback of their neck goes up and they're ready for afight, and a lot of that's a misunderstanding.
they think, ok,there's no options. we're cramming thisdown your throat. we're in control now becausethis is in a different category and you're subservient to that. that's scary. though that isdefinitely not the case, there is a real fearthat private landowners have and industry as well. and i think the service iscoming around to really realize
that, that from the get-goyou have to get on the ground and start talking to people. and maybe get everybody onboard to talk about a solution and participate in how we cando that, and not drive somebody out. and then that'swhat we need to do. the candidate conservationagreement and candidate conservation agreement withassurances, or as we say, cca and ccaa, are bothcooperative conservation
agreements that we'veimplemented here in southeast new mexico. these two agreementsare to bring into effect a cooperation, acollaboration of industry, of landowners, of federal andstate agencies, who will all come together with the samebasic purpose and reason, and that is the conservationof the dunes sagebrush lizard and the lesser prairie chicken. the reason behind that wasthe decline of both the lesser
prairie chicken and thedunes sagebrush lizard. it aims to protect,realistically, the habitat. from the bureau of landmanagement standpoint, wildlife itself is not somethingthat we manage because that is a functionof the state primarily. what we can manageis habitat and so realistically, the cca programdoes a wonderful job of that because it makes somefunding available, gets everybody to the samepage as goal-oriented.
let's fix the habitat andthe lesser prairie chicken and the sand dunelizard should thrive. the goal of thecca and the ccaa is to recognize thatwe're in a landscape that both the habitat forthe chicken and the lizard exist but there's also otherland uses, such as ranching and oil and gas. we had industry folks fromoil and gas, the ranching community, who did someoutreach with the environmental
community, and triedto pull a team together that ended up becominga working group. and over the course of threeyears, hammered out issues that would affect them ifeither one of these species were listed. so we would have ameeting every month to try to write this and makeit where ranchers could live with it and the oil and gasindustry could live with it, and so could you all, us fishand wildlife and the game
department. at first, the agreementswere written by biologists, and not necessarilywritten in the way that they had agood business plan. the problem came in that toenroll prior to a listing, the oil companies neededto enroll all their leases. we are now talking into tens tohundreds of millions of dollars to enroll. so the oil companiesstepped up and helped
us develop a new approach tothe agreement that allowed them to better participate. these agreements were createdover a long period of time. they didn't justhappen overnight. it started out alittle rocky, and there were a lot of arguments, andthere was some contention. but over time,everyone in the room began to believe in each other. we, there again, had thekey players at the table,
not only foreducation to just get total buy-in by all partners. it was a plan that epitomizedcooperation and collaboration among people of vastlydiverse and in some cases, opposing opinions, but they allcame to the same conclusions, and they all learnedto compromise. the roles of the cca includethe fish and wildlife service bringing the regulatoryaspect, the blm bringing the aspect of oiland gas management,
rangeland land managementthrough the permitting process and nepa. if you're a private landowner,like a rancher or a farmer, then your role is tomake sure that there is access to yourland, and that you're conducting youractivities that are consistent withconservation of the species. or if you're a permit holder,like the center for excellence, then your job is toadminister the program.
to our benefit,we have the center of excellence, who is verygood at handling money, very good at doingcontracts, very good at having technicalexpertise on hand when needed. they also work on the cca sideto help with the development plans and conservationassociated with the dunes sagebrush lizardand lesser prairie chicken. we have focusedon the oil and gas industry and theranching industry
because those are the twolargest users of the land. we've set up a conservationfund so that oil and gas pays into the fund forevery action that's permitted out there. the partnership developed acost structure for impacts, and it was based on thecost of restoring all the associated infrastructure. the cca, for an oil and gasindustry, is pretty simple. we sign up our minerallease holds at a varying
rate of cost per acre. that goes into a bank account. and then what we cando with that money is turn it intoconservation actions by funding rangeland healthissues, such as providing water on the landscape or workingon rotation patterns with the ranchers andmaybe funding as an offset. the cca and the ccaa also gives,for your livestock community and oil and gas companies,a sense of security
that they can continue business. they just have to abide bythe requirements that are necessary to maintain that cca. this is a windmill that we'veconverted to a solar pump. it's a project that wefunded through the candidate conservation agreement. what happened herewas a wind shear came through and actuallytore his windmill up, so he wasn't ableto get any water
on this pasture for his cattle. so the rancher asked, hey, canwe try to get something out here, get a solar going. went through theprocess, got it funded. so we got out here, tookthe windmill tower down, and placed this solar panelin here and a solar pump. a big reason that we want totake these towers out of here is it's a vertical structureand the lesser prairie chicken has an avoidanceto vertical structures.
what it allows isfor year round water. any days that aresunny, we're producing water for his livestock. it's an all around betterdeal for the rancher too. as i said, it providesyear round water, not only for the cattlebut for wildlife. and that's what we try todo with these conservation measures and theseconservation projects is to improve the habitat,not for just one species
but for the wildlife as a whole,and that's our main drive. my reaction to thecca-ccaa implementation was i felt verysatisfied that we had accomplished our goals beingable to develop the resources. it meant that we werebeing proactive as opposed to reactive and doingour conservation before the listing was done. so, yeah, i was veryexcited about that. after cehmm came alongand my reaction was this
could help and benefit everyoneif everyone gets along with it. i think it helped us feel likewe had somebody on our side from a conservation standpoint. i can't say that it'sa big change for us, but it's been nicebecause people like you all from thecenter of excellence have been able to come in anddo some good projects for us. so i think that goodthings are happening as a result of the partnership,and i don't see any negatives
at all from it. we're glad to be part of it. one of the main things thatmakes it very successful is it's easy to understand. because of that, itmakes it very simple for all the agencies and alsofor the oil and gas industry to be able to use it inour day-to-day business. it is also successful becauseit has an accountability component to it.
so if the participant doesnot implement the conservation measures or does notfollow the agreement, then you lose participation andprotection under this program. a lot of communicationhas happened. the center of excellencehas been wonderful for us to work with. the agencies aregood to work with. i think people just communicatereally well about this, and i think that is probablythe single biggest reason
for success. what makes it successfulis the voluntary nature of the agreement and thepermit holder's ability to actually go out andimplement restoration. they have got some programsavailable that i've signed up and i'm going toparticipate in that are going to begood for livestock and good for wildlife. the oil and gas havethrown in a huge amount
of funding, which has reallyhelped fill in our gaps. we're just gettingawesome stuff done on the ground that would havebeen years and years out. it's a win-win agreementfrom what we can see. i think that it's thekind of agreement that lets landowners worktogether with agencies and really have some goodthings come out of it. this is an oil fieldroad that we've taken up. we've pulled the caliche off.
it's a calcium carbonate thatthe oil field companies will put down and it'sbuilt a base so they can get their heavy equipmentin here and drill an oil well. what it causes, it causesa lot of fragmentation in the habitat. so what we try todo is we come in, we pull that caliche back off toget back to good fertile soil, and then we'll reseedwith native vegetation, native grasses, such as bigbluestem, little bluestem,
and try to get those nativegrasses incorporated back in here. pretty happy with this one. we did this one a year ago andtimed the rains right with it, and it's come back real nice. begin them early as possible. we know we havecandidates on the list, and when theseopportunities come along to do collaborativevoluntary conservation,
we need to capitalize onthem early and not run up against a listing deadline. think about implementationwhile you're planning. how are you going toget it on the ground? how are you going to enrollindividuals into the plan? if you do conventional things,you get conventional results. and if you're wantingbetter results you need to think outside theway we normally do business. one, have a core group of peoplethat are very, very motivated.
have clear set goals, butalso as you look at your team, make sure you have a teamthat's willing to give and take. anytime you can cooperate,all go in the same direction to benefit the land andto help the environment for the chicken, well,we're all gaining. don't think you knowsomething you don't know. don't think you need tocome up with all the answers right away, and always bewilling to listen and hear outside ideas.
relationships are the key. you have to keep yourlandowners engaged. they have a question,they don't want to call you up for informationand then not hear back from you for several days. and although it may take oneday to go out and install a wildlife water, ittakes multiple days to maintain a relationshipwith those people that you may only do oneproject with them per year,
but you talk to them on a nearlydaily or even weekly basis in order to maintaintheir relationship that allows you to go out anddo a project in one day. when you're workingwith oil and gas and you're workingwith ranchers, you really have to considerthe entire picture, and until you do that,it's not going to work. the collaboration forindustry and landowners means being able to plan.
this collaboration andfuture collaborations are extremely importantfor the industry. it means that-- givesus some protection. allows us to be able tokeep ranching in the way that we have and maybe lookat some other things that would help us toimprove our operations. i think this collaborationmeans the future of the lesser prairie chickenand the dunes sagebrush lizard. we're actually payingattention to them.
where their habitat may havebeen an afterthought, and now, on all of thesedifferent lands, we're actually consideringboth of these species in the planning of differentactivities on the landscape. for the future of the greatplains, this, once again, is a benchmark. i think we've set up a very goodmodel that others can look at. this collaborationis a great start. and we aspire, right now, tohave these programs provide
for us a great future, not onlyfor the southern great plains but as a legacy for ourchildren and grandchildren.
0 Komentar untuk "winter food"