Landowners in focal areas have some important reasons to get involved. Wildlife officials say private landowners are key to wildlife conservation in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission recently approved two new measures intended to draw more landowners into the fight to conserve the lesser prairie chicken while also protecting them should the bird be placed on the endangered species list.

One of the measures offers stewardship payments to agricultural producers for work done to protect and expand habitat for the rare upland bird. The new program is known as the Wildlife Credits Program and is part of an agreement between the Wildlife Department, Oklahoma Conservation Commission and the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts.

The program basically pays agricultural producers to perform certain management practices and avoid others that would negatively impact the habitat of the lesser prairie chicken and would be funded by money from the Association of Conservation Districts combined with portions of donations made by OG&E to offset habitat loss caused by two of the company’s wind farm developments in northwest Oklahoma — the OU Spirit Wind Farm and the 151 MW Keenan Phase II wind farm from which OG&E is purchasing 100 percent of the energy produced.

The other measure, as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances Program (CCAA), can provide landowners with assurances against certain liabilities and federal restrictions in the event that the lesser prairie chicken is listed as an endangered species.

The lesser prairie chicken has been a candidate for listing on the endangered species list since 1998, and since 2008 has been a category 2 species, which is the highest level of priority given to a species before being listed.