Nearly Listed . . . Countdown begins now.

*Disclaimer: I am a public affairs specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. I wrote this article to appear in the Oklahoma New Trail e-newsletter. I reposted it here so my friends and family can see what I do.

As you drive through the Oklahoma historic prairie chicken habitat range in the northwest part of the state, you pass the tractor tucks loading under grain elevators that tower over the tiny high plains towns with Native American names. Here, if producers are not raising cattle they are growing something that feeds cattle or some combination of the two. There is barely a trickle of water in the North Canadian River and that emphasizes the looming drought. The leafless deciduous trees interspersed with eastern redcedar stretch over broken down fences that remind residents of the kind of history that was the topic of epic Hollywood movies. In some cases, the precariously leaning housing structures may have once seeped a decade of dust into the lungs of people who still work the land. In other cases, the broken windmills could mark the original homestead site the landowner’s family built in the late 1800’s.

According to 82 year-old landowner and cattle rancher Albert Williams, for many of the land owners who didn’t leave the area during the great depression the oil and gas industries made it possible for ranches, like the one his father passed to him, to continue production even through droughts. He is worried about the drought the state is anticipating this year. Williams says in addition to environmental conditions the economy is taking its toll as well. He says that while the work of getting a calf ready to sell has remained the same, the cost of doing business has increased to the point where having a sustainable operation is getting harder and harder.

As you drive into Woodward from Highway 183 you can see the towers harvesting wind energy on nearly every ridge surrounding the town. The wind in Oklahoma is not likely to stop blowing so this seemingly perpetual renewable resource is the next in-demand industry that is helping producers supplement their operations.

Nearly all of the land in Woodward County is privately owned. More than 100 private landowners convened February 23, 2010, at the High Plains Technical Institute in Woodward, Okla., to attend the fifth in a series of ranch conversations discussing the status of the other resident of the county that could change everything about everything: the lesser prairie chicken.

The lesser prairie chicken is a species of upland bird that in 2008, with low population numbers, earned the highest rating this bird species can rate as a candidate for listing under the Threatened and Endangered Species Act. The historical range for the bird covers five states; Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. These states and federal agencies have been working together to improve the habitat these prairie chickens live in.

The meeting was organized by High Plains RC&D, Buffalo, a Natural Resources Conservation Service sponsored organization, several local rural development partners and private sponsors. The producers and the partnership of state, local and federal agencies have been conversing about the potential listing of the bird for a decade, but Wednesday night the Biologist Ken Collins of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the agency has received partial funding to begin the process that will determine whether the bird is listed as threatened, endangered or the consideration for listing is withdrawn all together. The proposed rule is estimated to take 18 months to complete, the whole process . . . over two years.

The impact of listing could extend to the land owners through their leases with oil and gas companies and wind energy contracts. There is no grandfather clause that protects people who have already established these leases. The placement of these structures could have to be changed to meet standards that will be set to provide optimal habitat restoration for the bird. Any new development would have to go through processes that can delay the construction of nearly anything by months if not years.

After the presentations by agencies there was a period for questions from the landowners. The conversation was intense but civil. Many wondered what, about this bird, is worth more than the weight of the past, the struggles of the present, and the prosperity perceived for the future? Donald Wolfe, senior biologist with The Sutton Avian Research Center explained that the lesser prairie chicken is considered an indicator species. That means the birds are greatly affected by any changes in their habitat and their presence indicates that the environment is doing well enough to support a sensitive species. He also said that they are considered an umbrella species. That means the things that are done to benefit this species will also benefit other plant and animal species, wild and domestic.

One producer noted the ways other endangered species have been restored and enquired whether those other methods would be effective for this species as well. For other upland and endangered species, scientists were able to repopulate abandoned but suitable habitat using methods that increase reproduction. The problem for this species is not an attack on the reproduction process, necessarily, it is the disappearance of suitable habitat that has caused their numbers to dwindle. Therefore, the only way to restore the population is to restore the habitat where they can live.

Through the presentations the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation presented the variety of voluntary practices that make up the current overall plan to restore the habitat through brush management and removing unnecessary and unused structures like broken fences and old broken windmills and in some cases some of the dilapidated homestead structures, then restoring the ideal nesting, feeding and living habitat that consists mostly of native grasses.

NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to producers to accomplish these goals. In financial assistance alone, the agency has $2.8 million available to landowners and producers in counties that fall in the lesser prairie chicken habitat range that can be applied to restoring habitat. The Lesser Prairie Chicken Habitat Initiative is scheduled to continue for at least two more years with similar funding levels. Roger Wells represented The National Wild Turkey Federation and said the organization was willing to support area producers and landowners as they need to acquire the equipment to accomplish the goals of the programs of the federal and state agencies.

Brush management can help landowners control eastern redcedar, mostly through the use of mechanical removal and prescribed fire. Control of these species are not only beneficial for the bird, it can also increase the usefulness of land the landowners have already lost because of encroachment. Prescribed fire is also effective in encouraging growth of native grasses which include the legumes the birds eat. The practice also reduces the threat of wildfire to private lands by reducing fuel loads. Ron Voth, Oklahoma Wildlife and Prairie Heritage Association offered information for producers who might be interested in joining the current effort to form a state-wide burn association to help secure liability insurance to cover prescribed burning and limit losses from planned burns that get out of control, which is one of the major concerns for people who are unsure about the use of fire as a management tool.

Another threat to the species habitat are the broken fences that no longer hold anything in, the windmills that can’t draw water from a well but provide a perch for predators and other structures that impede the travel of the lesser prairie chicken to their mating grounds. More than one program is offered to help producers remove these unnecessary and unusable structures. Programs exist to help mark the first and third wire on any useful fence line to help reduce bird deaths from impact with the fence.

While time is short, it isn’t too late for conservation efforts to be lead locally. Because the county is nearly entirely privately owned land, the only people who can do anything to prevent the listing are the land owners at this point. The only other species of prairie chicken currently listed on the Threatened and Endangered Species List is the Attwaters Prairie Chicken. It has been listed since 1967.

And that's why I like snow.

Our adventure today begins with Xyla, tired of watching movies, grabbing my hand and leading me over to the front door.  She says "open door."  I knew this moment was coming.  We didn't have anything else to do, or be responsible for.  She was dressed in the sweatshirt her Aunt Brandy embroidered for her and her tangerine capri pants.  I wondered if she would try to walk out there with no shoes on so I opened the door.  

She got right up next to the door jamb, then turned to me and wanted me to pick her up.  She insisted but I told her that if she was going to go outside that she was going to have to walk out there on her own.  (I wasn't wearing any shoes either and I knew this wasn't going to be a two minute deal.)  She looked out the door and thought about it for a minute.  She said, "I need shoes."

I said, "very good, now where are they?"  She pointed to her pink and white tennis shoes and I closed the door, picked up some socks and her shoes and started putting them on her.  I grabbed my own pair of shoes, knowing this was going to go further than the driveway.  

We walked out the door and around the front of the car parked in the driveway.  She is very nervous about ice and there was quite a bit of it on the other side of the car.  I modeled a penguin walk and she followed.  Now before you say anything about the penguin walk let me ask you, have you ever seen a penguin fall on the ice?  So it works.  Stop laughing.

Once she got to the other side of the ice patch she said, "there no more."  I told her no there wasn't anymore ice.  So we walked down the driveway.  At the bottom of the driveway there is a river of slush.  I didn't even check to see what the temperature was, I didn't have to.  If the snow was melting this quickly then it was over 40 which is good enough for me.  The sun was warm on our shoulders. 

We started to walk down the street.  We made it to the mail boxes.  I am glad someone had the kind heart to shovel out a path for the mailman, if they can't get to the box - they don't deliver the mail.  That is a bad policy when 20 houses in the subdivision get their mail from the same cluster of boxes.  

We wandered around the cement pad where the mail boxes sit.  I had to explain to Xyla that we didn't have our key so we couldn't check our mail unless we went back to the house to get said key.  She wasn't having any of that.  She found a key on the ground.  It was the key to one of the large parcel boxes at the end of the row.  Of course it was the box with the number that was hard to reach because the plow (that came through at 9:30 at night) managed to pile it all, right there.  I reached over there an put the key in the box.  That is how the mail man gets the keys back.  I really should have checked to see if there was anything in the box since now it was open, but then what would I do with whatever was inside.  (I hope they get their mail.)

We continued down the street and came to the place where the subdivision turns into a field.  We turned around and started down the other cul-de-sac street.  We got to the bottom of the turnabout and she discovered slush.  After a few minutes of stomping around in it she stopped.  Set her foot down.  Thought about.  Lifted her foot up.  Thought about it.  Then said, "it making water."  I told her, "yes, when ice melts it turns into water."  Ironically, the same snow turns to water theme that was on The Magic School Bus today.  

We made our way through the "squishy slushy" back to our yard.  It was a bit of a struggle because she was just sure I was going to make her go inside.  I got her convinced that once we got back to the house we could make a snowman.  Then there was a little less talk and a lot more walk.  

I didn't even go in the house when we first got back to the yard.  I made a snow ball and plopped it in the snow.  I started to roll it.  She was intrigued.  I told her we had to roll it in other snow to make a ball.  When the snow is that slushy, it doesn't roll as well.  I decided that the snowman would be no bigger than her.  Mainly because it doesn't take a whole lot of height to impress an almost three year old and I didn't want to have to heft the dreaded second ball on top of the first.  It only took two swipes of her hands in the snow for her to decide it was too cold to put her hands in.  She was torn because she really wanted to make a snowman but she really didn't like her hands to be cold.  I asked her if she might like to go inside to get some gloves.  She shook her head yes.  

We went inside, I left the front door open so she would know that I intended to take her right back outside as soon as she was properly adorned.  

She shot out of the house, very excited that we were going to make this snowman.  (Going inside was an excellent opportunity for me to grab the camera too. )  Let me back up.  Just before Christmas we got an e-Christmas card from a relative that was a little bit of a game.  Woodland and domestic animals making a snowman.  She played that nearly nonstop and mentioned it at least 15 times every time I even looked sideways at the computer.  Add to that the snowmen at the stores and on her shirt and and everywhere else she looked . . . well you get that she knew about the snowman, right?  And why she was so excited to make one.  You know since the first snow was mid January and it didn't stick.  this was the first real snow that was snowman worthy.

The rolling of the first ball wasn't going so well.  It wasn't so much a ball as a lopsided lump.  I set it and started filling out the ball by taking handfuls of snow and patting them on to shape the ball.  It didn't take her long to pick up what I was up to.

The top ball was hardest to shape properly.  I find with smaller snowman size, judgement on ball size is a bit skewed.  In this case, lumpy and slightly off kilter.  It was too late though we were on a roll.  I tried out two leaves for eyes but shortly learned that Oklahoma, being the windy place that it is, was not going to let this be a 'natural' snowman.

The sucker she had when we started this adventure was abandoned in the first slush stop.  She handed it to me and never thought about it again.  I ate the rest of it.  I make no excuses, sometimes you have to take one for the team.  Consequently, the stick made a decent mouth.

Xyla was very serious about making sure her snowman had all the parts a person is supposed to have.  (Don't worry, she isn't aware of the major anatomical difference between boys and girls yet.)

Sn-yo-gee Bear?

She was very careful about the details.  We added arms and ears and snow eyes (after the leaves blew away) and twig eyebrows.  Look at this girl crafting the snow.  She was so serious too.  There was one place in the yard where it was apparent that someone in the neighborhood thought the drift in front of the house (3 feet) was steep enough to serve as a sledding hill.  Of course you can also tell that in order to sled, you should actually have a sled.  Sledding on your butt won't get you far unless the snow is firmly packed and this snow was very much not.  What I am trying to say is there are random foot prints and then butt prints that scoot about 4 feet. There are only two tracks.

However, there was still one spot in the yard that was broad and white and clean and just hollering for snow angels.  I asked Xyla if she wanted to make a snow angel and she said no.  I decided that I would show her what a snow angel is.  Then she just had to make one too.  (This is where my camera battery died.)  

Then it was back to the snow man.   She knocked off his arms.  Popped off his eyes.  Ooops-ed his ears and he was back to the generic three ball shape.  She got this look on her face.  She put her arms up for me to pick her up so I did.  I asked her if she was done for today and she shook her head yes.  I trapsed through the snow packing my baby girl and headed in the house.  I set her down for just a minute and she started crying saying, "snowman . . . SNOman . . . SNOWMAN."  I told her that we would go out and play with the snowman again tomorrow.  

She was really upset.  I haven't seen her really emotionally hurt and crying very many times.  I asked her if she missed the snowman.  She nodded her teary head yes.  I told her we would go out and see the snowman first thing in the morning.  Then I held her for a long time.  I set her down on the couch with a pillow and her blanket and a cup of milk.  In less than three minutes, she was fast asleep.  I hope she dreams of dancing with her snowman.  Good night, snow angel.