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Court Vacates Lesser Prairie-Chicken Listing
Natural Resources Director
Jenn Clayton
Jenn Clayton is an environmental specialist with a focus in natural resources, planning and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in SWCA Environmental Consultants’ Durango, Colorado office. Her expertise is in natural resources with extensive experience conducting biological surveys including terrestrial and aquatic threatened and endangered species and associated critical habitat, forest inventory, and wildfire risk assessments. She has 5 years’ experience working with private, federal, state, tribal and local clients. Ms. Clayton has extensive practices in relocating and monitoring threatened and endangered Species of Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, including the razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus), Brack’s hardwall cactus (Sclerocaactus cloveriae var. brackii), inventory and tagging desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), as well as bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) surveys, and Migratory Bird Treaty Act surveys. Ms. Clayton also received training from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 2015 to monitor desert tortoise.
Senior Wildlife Biologist
Doug Faulkner
Doug has 25 years of biology and ornithology experience in the southern and western United States, Costa Rica, and Mexico, and is recognized as a regional expert in field ornithology. He also is the lead biologist for bat monitoring projects in SWCA’s Rocky Mountains and Plains region. He conducts field surveys, performs desktop review of scientific literature, and consults with agency resource specialists to address impacts on biological resources considered in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents. With general and specific knowledge of natural history across multiple tax and competence in local, state, and federal regulations pertaining to wildlife conservation and management, Doug advises on environmental study design and analysis, and peer reviews technical reports. He is published in peer-reviewed journals and is currently an associate editor of the peer-reviewed regional journal Western Birds.
Project Biologist • Austin
Brittany Irle
As a Project Biologist for SWCA, Brittany works primarily on projects that require Endangered Species Act (ESA) compliance as a Subject Matter Expert, Project Manager, biologist, author, and technical/field staff. This includes writing and serving as Subject Matter Expert for Biological Assessments (BAs) for ESA section 7 ESA compliance, Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) for application of section 10 ESA permits, habitat assessments, threatened and endangered species reviews, and critical issues analysis reports. Brittany manages projects for renewable energy and oil and gas clients in which she obtains necessary permits for ESA, Clean Water Act, and other code compliance; designs and implements surveys for threatened, endangered, proposed, and candidate species; and coordinates routine constraints analyses.
Brittany serves as both a Biology Champion and Quality Champion for SWCA in which her primary role is to act as leader and mentor to staff company-wide for conservation of at-risk species and for improving and standardizing the high quality products that SWCA delivers to clients. Brittany possesses a Letter of Authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to conduct surveys for the lesser prairie-chicken and a Scientific Research Permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) to handle and relocate Texas’ native wildlife. she also performs field surveys for monarch butterfly and under supervision for Eurycea salamanders; performs acoustic analysis for bat species of the eastern and western U.S.; and is proficient in vegetation surveys, avian surveys, and other threatened and endangered species surveys. As a member of The Wildlife Society, Brittany holds certification as an Associate Wildlife Biologist®, and attends and presents at annual member conferences.
Written By
Jenn Clayton
Natural Resources Director
Doug Faulkner
Senior Wildlife Biologist
Brittany Irle
Project Biologist
Posted
August 15, 2025
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On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, a federal district court vacated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS’s) listing of the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) (LEPC) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In May 2025, the USFWS informed the court that it had erred when it listed the species in 2022 as two distinct population segments, and the court determined this error to be a “serious, foundational defect in the final rule” (Court Order).
This court order is the latest in a series of USFWS findings and district court decisions regarding the listing status of the LEPC since it was first petitioned in 1995. Although the court’s order is effective immediately, we expect the USFWS to officially remove the LEPC from the list of ESA-protected species soon, likely with a public notice or interim final rule published in the Federal Register. The vacated listing also likely reanimates the process of addressing a 2016 petition to list the LEPC. The USFWS anticipates making a new finding on the 2016 listing petition in about 18 months (by early 2027).
Will My Projects Be Affected?
With this court order, the LEPC is no longer a protected species under the ESA. Some things to consider moving forward:
- This species no longer triggers federal interagency consultation under Section 7. If you have a Biological Assessment or Biological Opinion in progress, you may need to work with the federal agencies to revise these documents to remove analysis of effects to this species and potentially any LEPC-specific conservation measures or terms and conditions. Consider also whether changes to any related National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents are warranted to correct or clarify the LEPC’s listing status and whether changes to environmental commitments specific to the species are warranted.
- This species also no longer precipitates a need to consider whether take may occur or whether an incidental take permit through Section 10 is warranted. There is no need to consider new enrollment in the currently available programmatic Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) or Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAAs), except as a hedge against the species’ future regulatory uncertainty.
- Current participants in LEPC CCAAs or HCPs could consider withdrawing from those participation agreements. The regulatory assurances for take authorization are not currently needed (although, it is possible that the species could again be listed in the future), and the financial burdens that agreement participation or implementing conservation measures involve may not be necessary.
- Consider whether there are other agency-specific or state-level designations for the LEPC. These may or may not be altered by the change in federal ESA status.
SWCA Can Help
SWCA has actively engaged with clients while the species went through a rollercoaster of status changes, including its listing as a candidate in 1998 and as a threatened species in 2014 and being delisted in 2015, re-listed in 2022, and delisted again in 2025. We can help you navigate future scenarios.
