Oil and gas exempt from drilling rules in endangered bird habitat. Is species threatened?

Oil and gas operators were granted exemptions to drilling restrictions intended to protect an endangered bird species in the plans of eastern New Mexico, causing environmental groups to criticize the federal agency tasked with managing operations on public land.

Largely based on timing restrictions, meant to prevent loud noises from fossil fuel machinery during the endangered lesser prairie chicken’s peak mating season and hours, the exemptions are applied by oil companies and granted by the Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office.

In granting the exemptions, the BLM allowed oil and gas operations run continuously, without having to pause during times when the species gathers in mating groups called leks.

More: Here's the latest on local efforts to restore Carlsbad's endangered species

A study by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) showed the BLM denied just one of the 76 exemptions requested between January 2020 and April 2023, almost all of which were in the Permian Basin region of southeast New Mexico in Eddy and Lea counties.

Those records were acquired by PEER through a Freedom of Information Act request, and reviewed the Carlsbad Current-Argus for this story.

The BLM did not return a request for comment for this story.

More: More than 4,000 acres of public land in southeast New Mexico could be sold to oil and gas

Are there any prairie chickens in the Permian Basin oilfield?

Eddy and Lea counties are part of an area known as the prairie chicken’s southern distinct population segment (DPS) by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, encompassing the eastern edge of New Mexico and parts of West Texas.

The chicken was listed as endangered in the southern DPS in November 2022, the highest class of federal species protections, and given the lower “threatened” status in a northern DPS spanning north Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma.

It’s mostly threatened by impacts to the bird’s habitat by development, as the bird naturally avoids tall structures like drilling rigs or fencing that are common in oil and gas production or agriculture.

More: Biden vetoes Congress' effort to repeal lesser prairie chicken protection in New Mexico

“These protections are entirely ineffective and will not help the Lesser Prairie Chicken’s recovery if they are simply waived,” said PEER’s Rocky Mountain Director Chandra Rosenthal. “These species that are now in jeopardy precisely because of historic BLM mismanagement.”

But there’s not much oil production in eastern New Mexico counties like Roosevelt or Quay north of the oilfield where the chicken is known to survive, said Emily Wirth with the Carlsbad-based nonprofit Center for Excellence (CEHMM), thus very few, if any, exemptions granted in places where the bird’s population would be affected.

CEHMM consults with private landowners including oil and gas companies, and the Fish and Wildlife Service on regulatory matters like exemptions tied to the chicken and several other endangered or threatened species in the area.

More: Gray wolves are being released in Colorado. How will that affect lobos and ranchers in NM?

The group develops contracts known as candidate conservation agreements (CCAs), certified by the Service, that see landowners enact conservation practices voluntarily on their land, and in exchange protects them from further restrictions once a listing is official under the Endangered Species Act.

CEHMM reported in its third-quarter 2023 report it had about 2.3 million acres enrolled in its CCAs by the ranching industry and 3.2 million by oil and gas companies.

Projects included relocating well pads and rights of way, along with vegetation monitoring, removing fences and invasive species like mesquite plants that could impede the species’ recovery.

More: Dunes sagebrush lizard's federal protections delayed amid opposition from oil and gas

A bird wasn’t documented since 2008 Lea and Eddy counties, Wirth said, where the exemptions are granted.

“From a conservation standpoint, there’s no impact there because there’s no resource there,” Wirth said. “There aren’t chickens.”

What is being done in New Mexico to save the lesser prairie chicken?

Despite these efforts, the chicken’s New Mexico population did appear to be declining even more.

Records show there were 2,678 birds documented in the state by CEHMM, the BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service, and 163 active leks. That’s a 25 percent drop from 3,578 chickens reported in 2022, according to CEHMM’s records.

More: Feds want more evidence from ranchers who blame lobos for livestock killings in New Mexico

Wirth explained that operators in the southern DPS are required to conduct surveys of the bird population in their area at least two weeks apart before and after drilling occurs.

So far, she said no lesser prairie chickens have turned up in the Permian Basin area since the endangered species listing was made.

It’s unlikely any exemptions would be granted in counties identified as hosting remaining bird populations, Wirth said.

More: Pinyon jay native to New Mexico's piñon forests could be protected from extinction

“It may be suitable habitat, but there’s other conservation measures that are still being taken that area to maintain the species in case they come back,” she said of southeast New Mexico. “It (exemptions) allows for operations to continue where you don’t have the species. In our areas, in Roosevelt County where we have chickens, those exemptions aren’t being granted.”

And the exemptions are important, Wirth argued to allow New Mexico’s oil and gas industry to continue its economy-driving operations.

The New Mexico Legislature reported a $3.5 billion surplus of new money for the next fiscal year, a sum believed largely driven by expanding oil and gas operations, mostly in the Permian.

More: Checkerspot butterfly recovery could mean setting aside lands in Lincoln National Forest

The region also led the state to become the second-highest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., following only Texas, with more than 100 drilling rigs running as of the latest data from Baker Hughes.

It’s important to balance conservation efforts with economic needs, Wirth said.

“That’s the only way to go about conservation,” she said. “For things to work on a landscape, there has to be that flexibility to allow for operations to continue. “There’s a lot of thought and work that goes into the exceptions before drilling. It’s not just pencil whipping.”

Rosenthal argued the BLM should be more transparent about granting exemptions, contending that continue waivers of lesser prairie chicken protections would lead to future lawsuits.

“BLM had to compile these records for PEER because the agency is not monitoring the cumulative impacts of its own enforcement of these wildlife protections,” she said. “Unfortunately, as with their predecessors, the current BLM management does not appear responsive to pleas for wildlife protection until they are sued.”

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Oil drillers exempt from endangered bird species rules in New Mexico