A local committee spent Monday afternoon polishing its recommendations to a Texas comptroller's task force on lesser prairie chickens and economic development.
The prairie chickens are nearly on the endangered species list, which would bring federal oversight that could put a crimp in the growth of several industries, particularly wind energy and oil and natural gas production.
There are theories that tall structures, like wind turbines and drilling rigs, cause the birds to abandon their habitat, ultimately resulting in a drop in population. There are other ways habitat is fractured, such as plowing grasslands and building highways. Biologists estimate their population has shrunk by 90 percent in Texas during recent years, but coming up with an accurate count is difficult.
"Unlike plants, they hide," said Kyle Sean, a wildlife diversity biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife.
So, the committee worked to form its recommendations without hard numbers.
Limited studies indicate different habitats yield from one prairie chicken per 1,000 acres to about 13 per 1,000 acres, Sean said. In the northeast Panhandle, there has been a steep decline, resulting in about two per 1,000 acres. The other area with a concentration of the bird is near Muleshoe, and that area has about seven per 1,000 acres.
The studies don't point to any one cause for declines in both areas.
"The prairie chicken may be dying a death of a thousand paper cuts," Sean said.
A more extensive aerial count of the area where prairie chickens perform mating rituals is about two years from completion by Texas Tech University, but even that would only result in a rough estimate of numbers.
"We're not sure what we're sure about, but we're in a serious situation," said Mike Carter, who led the discussion and is the coordinator of Playa Lakes Joint Venture, a conservation group.
The hope is that a plan for mitigating the impact of industry growth like the coming wind energy transmission lines and resulting wind farms might keep the federal government from enacting restrictions on activity. But the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service could be very close to action this fall.
"What I hear through the grapevine, is the money is there," Carter said of a potential endangered species listing.
The consensus of the committee was that fostering a culture of conservation for voluntary participation, such as setting off areas for habitat to compensate for affected habitat, could be one answer.
"We have to have a way to incentivize conservation - not penalize, incentivize," said Buzz David, a member of the committee and head of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.
The committee talked about possibly funding local efforts through contributions from those benefiting from business activity impacting the birds, like wind companies and transmission providers. Contributions of 1 percent of profits was one idea, but Carter said he wasn't sure committee members were ready to say that "out loud" yet.
The committee voted to approve the recommendations with some refinements if there are no objections to the changes that are still in rough-draft form. The recommendations would go to the state task force that would take comments from lawmakers and others. The next step would be the formation of an implementation plan, said Cary Dupuy, natural resource policy adviser at the comptroller's office.