Texas lizards and weasels -Editorial Houston Chronicle If we’re not going to protect a Texas species, let’s at least not pretend that we are - via Herp Digest

Sagebrush Lizard Controversy

November 12, 2013 12:38 am 

A threatened reptile brings out the worst in sneaky Texas politics.

The dunes sagebrush lizard isn’t much to look at, and it isn’t easy to find. About three inches long, the brown "habitat specialist” lives only in the root systems of scrubby shinnery oaks, which grow in the desert sand dunes of West Texas and New Mexico. To stay out of the heat, it likes to bury itself.

For the last few years, the lizard has been talked about more than it’s been seen. It’s currently classified as “threatened,” one step below an “endangered species” protected by federal law. And that’s where the oil and gas industry, which has been drilling hot and heavy in the lizard’s home dunes, wants to keep it.

We agree. We don’t want to push a threatened species over the line.

And in its broadest outlines, we like the sound of the deal that the industry proposed a few years ago, as it was persuading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that really, the lizard didn’t need those big-stick, able-to-disrupt-business protections that come with being an endangered species. Instead of federal protections, why not work out a free-market solution? Why not let oil-and-gas payments reward private landowners who choose to take lizard-protecting measures? More habitat; less hassle for business.

The devil, as usual, is in the details. You’d expect a lizard-monitoring program to be overseen by Texas Parks and Wildlife, which knows something about animals. Instead, it falls under the purview of the Texas comptroller - the state’s bookkeeper and tax collector.

Why? Because that’s what the oil and gas industry wanted. In 2011, at the behest of lobbyists, then-state Rep. Warren Chisum slid the proposal into a fiscal-bill amendment.

Comptroller Susan Combs’ office, of course, knows doodly squat about lizards. So for day-to-day reptile monitoring, the comptroller contracted with a group called Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation - which just happens to have been founded by lobbyists for the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a group that represents petro-giants like Exxon and Chevron. The group is chaired by (wait for it) Warren Chisum, the former state rep who wrote the amendment that gave lizard oversight to the controller’s office and who works these days as a lobbyist for (yes!) the Texas Oil and Gas Association. Chisum says there’s no conflict of interest.

Environmental groups think otherwise. “It’s an example of the fox guarding the henhouse,” grumbled Noah Greenwald, endangered species director of the Center for Biological Diversity. And independent oil producers worry that a group run by lobbyists representing big oil companies will naturally skew lizard protection in a way that favors big companies. (That’s why Rep. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, pushed for a more accountable lizard program.)

Comptroller Combs contends that satellite imagery shows private landowners are keeping up their ends of the deal, but environmental groups are suspicious. And neither they, nor the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, has any way to double-check. The comptroller’s office keeps secret the identities of the landowners who are participating in the program.

This system is nutty. We’re embarrassed that Comptroller Combs - normally a straight shooter and a fan of government transparency - not only defends such a hot mess, but offers it as a model for other states.

Texas shouldn’t be a state that pussyfoots around, hiding sneaky lobbyist-fueled actions from the people. If we say we’re going to protect lizards, we should protect lizards - and we should do it in an open, easy-to-check way, one that doesn’t favor big companies over small ones.

And if we’re not going to protect lizards, let’s at least have the decency not to pretend that we are.

Fish and Wildlife Service sued over decision to not list dunes sagebrush lizard---Two groups say Texas conservation plan too vague, overseen by oil industry insiders - Herp Digest

By Mella McEwen, Midland Reporter-Telegram, June 19, 2013 --A year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to list the dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the reptile is the subject of a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The lawsuit focuses on Texas’ voluntary conservation plan, which the two groups say risks the lizard’s future “by relying on a voluntary state conservation plan in which Texas maintains that individual agreements with landowners to conserve the lizards’ habitat cannot be made available to the federal agency or the public.” New Mexico’s conservation plan was not part of the lawsuit.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is operating completely in the dark in Texas on this one,” said Jason Rylander, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife in announcing the lawsuit. “Denying Endangered Species Act protection for a species that is clearly imperiled based on a wink and a nod from the state is downright negligent at best, since the service has no way of validating the quality or effectiveness of the agreements.”

Said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, “It may sound cliché, but this really is an example of letting the fox guard the hen house. The dunes sagebrush lizard is hanging by a thread and needs the protections of the Endangered Species Act to have any chance at survival.”

Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said that while he had not yet read the lawsuit, “I feel the Fish and Wildlife Service made the correct decision not to list the lizard. The reason is that the decision was based on scientific fact and that is the data did not justify a listing. The lizard is doing just fine. The population appears to be strong, based on studies we’ve seen.”

The two groups noted, in announcing the lawsuit, that the species’ narrow range has gotten narrower due to increased oil and gas drilling and herbicide spraying on livestock grazing land.

Shepperd said such claims “of habitat fragmentation have been vastly overblown. Recent studies have shown over the last 40 years, less than 10 percent of the lizard’s habitat has been fragmented or developed. That doesn’t appear to be a large impact.”

He added, “we encourage the Fish and Wildlife Service to stand behind that decision.”

In announcing the lawsuit, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity criticized the Texas conservation agreement, saying it only vaguely described the actions required and leaving specific conservation measures to be spelled out in certificates between each participant and the state of Texas. They criticized the fact that those certificates are guarded from public access by state law, leaving “no way for Fish and Wildlife, or scientists and other experts, to determine whether such measures are adequate to prevent the lizard’s extinction. The lack of knowledge and transparency in this case not only further threatens the survival of dunes sagebrush lizard, but also sets a dangerous precedent for other species waiting in line for protection.”

Compounding the problem, the two groups said, Texas has delegated authority to implement the agreement to a private entity, the “Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation,” which is run by three lobbyists from the Texas Oil and Gas Association.

Oil Lobbyists Oversee Protection of Threatened Lizard – via Herp Digest

The Texas Tribune, by Jay Root, April 24, 2013 

This is one in a series of occasional stories about ethics and transparency in the part-time Texas Legislature. 

When Texas promised to protect a threatened lizard in the oil-rich Permian Basin, state officials entrusted the day-to-day oversight to a nonprofit that sounds like an environmental group: the Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation. 

What’s not advertised is the occupation of the board members who created it. 

They are all registered lobbyists for the powerful Texas Oil and Gas Association, also known as TXOGA. 

The industry group's prominent role in the fate of the dunes sagebrush lizard has angered both environmentalists and influential GOP lawmakers who want to reform the way Texas oversees threatened and endangered species. The flap has also exacerbated traditional tensions between corporate oil interests and independent producers, and it has put Comptroller Susan Combs in the crosshairs of some fellow Republicans. 

“This is a case of the fox guarding the hen house,” said Jay Lininger, biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has already taken steps to sue over the state-federal conservation plan. “If the oil and gas industry is regulating itself, then Americans have no hope of a quality environment.” 

The controversy has its origins in the special session of 2011, when then-state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, slipped an amendment onto the innocuous-sounding “fiscal matters” bill that had to pass because it provided badly needed revenue for a cash-strapped Legislature. 

Chisum’s amendment, which he said was pushed by the oil and gas association, granted key state authority over the handling of endangered species matters to the office of the comptroller, a role that has traditionally been played by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, officials said. 

“There was a group of us, the people from TXOGA, and we said we need to get this done," Chisum told The Texas Tribune. "That’s how it got started. Of course, we brought the comptroller in." 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had already proposed listing the lizard as endangered by then, a move strongly opposed by TXOGA and others in the oil industry, along with virtually any Texas Republican near a microphone. 

In response, Combs, working with the oil industry, landowners, local government officials and others, proposed a voluntary program to protect the dunes sagebrush lizard. The idea was to forestall a declaration or “listing” of the lizard as an endangered species, which would come with environmental restrictions that opponents said would inflict serious economic damage on a region described as the nation’s top oil producer. 

Lacking wildlife expertise in the state’s chief tax agency, Combs then contracted with adivision of Texas A&M University — the Texas AgriLife Extension Service — in November 2011. But A&M needed help on the ground, so it sent out a request for proposal for a contractor that could handle contacts with landowners and oil companies who would sign up for the voluntary program and undertake measures to save the lizard — like cutting down mesquite and removing old oil equipment. 

Officials say no one responded to the contracting request. TXOGA then went to Combs and floated a plan to have the oil and gas lobby group start up a nonprofit foundation to implement the Texas Conservation Plan in the lizard’s oil-rich habitat in the Permian Basin, according to TXOGA lobbyist and foundation board member Deb Hastings. 

“We did have a conversation with the comptroller’s office to see if it would be appropriate if we set up a foundation temporarily,” Hastings said. She said she did not recall that Combs raised any objections. 

The foundation was formed in February 2012 with three registered TXOGA lobbyists overseeing it as board members: Hastings, Robert Looney and Mari Ruckel. 

When asked if anyone ever thought putting oil lobbyists in charge of lizard protection in an area dependent on the industry might present a conflict of interest, Hastings said: “I could see where there was some perception risk regarding that, but there was nothing nefarious about this. It was above board. It was meant to ensure the species was not listed.” Hastings emphasized that the foundation hired a wildlife biologist to handle the scientific oversight and run the day-to-day operations. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife withdrew its proposal to list the lizard last summer, but could reinstate it if voluntary efforts fail. 

Lesli Gray, spokeswoman for the federal agency, said the officials gathered in Midland this month with counterparts from Texas A&M and the comptroller's office. She also said the comptroller's office has been providing regular updates as required in its state-federal conservation agreement. 

"The comptroller is very pleased that the work done by all of the stakeholders involved in this process resulted in a plan that caused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to list the DSL," said Combs spokesman Lauren Willis. "We are proud of the role we played in that process and the work we did to save the West Texas oil and gas economy." 

But some powerful Republican lawmakers are voicing concerns about TXOGA's role and the comptroller's oversight of endangered species. Chief among them is Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, whose district includes much of the Permian Basin and the lizard’s habitat. 

Seliger said independent oil companies are upset that TXOGA, which represents the interests of giants Exxon, Chevron and others, would be in charge of mitigation efforts for the whole industry — and potentially stacking the deck in favor of itself. 

"You might have competitors determining costs that other competitors would have to incur to drill oil wells," he said. 

More broadly, Seliger said there is no reason why the state comptroller should be in charge of coordinating the response to endangered species. He has a bill that would move that authority — which includes the right to hold the federal permit Combs now has at the comptroller’s office — to Texas Parks and Wildlife. An oversight board composed of several state agencies, including the comptroller’s office, is included in the latest version of the legislation, he said. 

Willis, the Combs spokeswoman, said the comptroller is leaving the matter to the Legislature, but Seliger said the pressure against the legislation has been intense. He said Combs, TXOGA and the major oil companies were all trying to kill it. 

“The comptroller and the majors are lobbying vigorously against it,” Seliger said. Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, who is carrying the legislation in the House, said oil industry opponents are trying to “threaten” members who dare support the effort to give oversight authority over endangered species listings to another agency. 

“No one has been able to explain to me why our tax collector and accountant for the state of Texas is responsible for managing endangered species issues,” he said. “It makes no logical sense whatsoever.” 

For its part, TXOGA is poised to step out of direct involvement by handing over its authority to other board members. But the current board got to select the new one, and it has already identified its incoming chairman: Chisum, who sponsored the TXOGA-backed bill giving Combs the authority to handle endangered species matters. 

Now an oil and gas lobbyist himself, Chisum tapped two others to join him — biochemist Glenna Kyle and Joe Maley of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, TXOGA officials said. 

Chisum was asked to respond to complaints that oil company interests shouldn't be in charge of the foundation set up to enact the conservation plan. He said qualified biologists are hired to do the work, but noted oil companies were paying to participate in the voluntary plan. Chisum said they should have a say in how it's implemented. “It’s our money," he said.

How the Conservation Plan for the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Works – via Herp Digest

June 15, 2012, By Terrence Henry, & Transcript of Interview done on StateImpact Texas a collaboration of local public radio stations KUT Austin, KUHF Houston and NPR.

The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard is being kept off of the endangered species list. For now.

The dunes sagebrush lizard is tiny, and brown, and hides in the dunes of East New Mexico and West Texas. And until recently, it seemed like it could threaten the drilling boom in the Permian basin as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service considered adding the lizard to the endangered species list.

But this week the oil and gas industry breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was announced that the lizard won’t be added. Thanks to a conservation plan brought forward by stakeholders in the region and approved by the state comptroller, Fish & Wildlife was convinced that the lizard would be just fine.

But how does the plan work? And what about it convinced Fish & Wildlife that it would be enough to save the lizard? For some answers, we turned to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, the Southwest Regional Director for Fish & Wildlife.

Q: What is it about the Texas conservation plan that led to the lizard not being listed by the Fish and Wildlife Department?

A: Well, I wanna go back to where the habitat is. About two-thirds of the habitat was in New Mexico, and about one-third was in Texas. And we had the candidate conservation agreements and candidate conservation agreements with assurances that covered over 90 percent of the habitat that is in New Mexico. The remaining one third of that habitat that was critical for the survival of the species and also for the long-term sustainability of the species didn’t have any protection at all in Texas, and it was all on private lands.

And so we determined through our scientific analysis that that part of the population was very important for the long-term sustainability of the species, and we needed to get a candidate conservation agreement with assurances, which are the agreements that we provide for private lands established in Texas so we’d the same level of protection across the landscape.

The Interview

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says Dunes Sagebrush Lizard should not be considered endangered.

Q: Can you explain what a candidate conservation agreement is?

A: Candidate conservation agreement basically is a voluntary agreement process that brings people to the table that could potentially have operations on the landscape that could impact lizard habitat. And they sign on to these agreements, voluntarily of course, to do different conservation measures that won’t impact the long term sustainability of the species nor impact the habitat. And so these agreements are basically agreements that, whether they are private landowner or gas and oil company, that identifies up front avoidance of those habitats where the species lives. Also, a fee system that puts in place opportunities to provide other restoration habitat so that the species can distribute across the landscape.

And part of that agreement, what the companies or the private landowners get, is the assurance from the Fish and Wildlife Service that this is all it will take to get this work done. So the Fish and Wildlife Service will not come back and say, ‘okay, you’ve done x, y. It was enough last year, but now you need to do z. And that’s the assurances part. Because they’ve committed to doing these conservation goals, objectives, and standards, then that’s all they’ll have to do.

Q: Can you give us some examples of what those conservation measures might be, depending upon the type of land use?

A: Probably the biggest one is avoidance. They will avoid any impacts to those blow out dunes and swales where the habitat is for the lizards. One of the things we found out that the industry can do is drill directionally, and it doesn’t mean that they cannot drill for oil underneath those habitats. They simply will create their paths in areas where there is not lizard habitat. Then they’ll drill directionally to get those gas and oil resources that they’re trying to bring to market. What we’re talking about is avoiding putting things like caliche pads and other types of infrastructure like oil pipes or things like that directly in the habitat itself. So avoidance is probably one of the biggest ones.

I think that also from the standpoint of how it is we look at those conservation goals and objectives, it very much is part of an overall strategy to also monitor what’s happening in those areas to make sure that those goals and objectives are not only being met but being effective.

Q: And what measures are ranchers taking?

A: Probably on the ranchers’ part the biggest thing is to try to get rid of mesquite. What mesquite does is that it puts down deep roots and prevents those blow out dunes and swales from forming. Therefore, it eliminates the habitat for those lizards. Most ranchers are more than happy to get rid of mesquite primarily because it has a diminishing effect on their ability to graze. If a rancher is grazing those properties, there’s incentives that are built in to some of the agreements and through some of the fees that are actually being paid that incentivize the rancher to go in and take out the mesquite. That’s one of the benefits of private landowners signing up in the agreements.

The grazing part of that really has a minimal effect because the cows that are grazing don’t have enough to eat in those blowouts, so they’re not going to spend a lot of time in there. And even if they’re grazing on shinnery oak…I’m told if you eat it at a particular time it’s kinda poisonous, so that’s one of the reasons why a lot the ranchers were taking out a lot of the shinnery oak. But now we recognize that shinnery oak is very important in terms of stabilizing some of those blowout dunes.

Q: Can putting the lizard on the list be revisited in the future?

A: Absolutely. The reason why we chose not to list it is because we have the kind of coverages through these candidate conservation agreements and candidate conservation agreements with assurances that we feel are going to protect the lizard and lead to long-term sustainability of that population. If the measures that we’ve designed do not accomplish those goals, then we still have the responsibility and have the option of bringing up potential listing for the lizard again. But we’re fairly confident with the commitment on the part of the people who have signed on and made commitment of resources that they’re committed to that process and so are we. And we’re pretty certain, about as certain as we possibly can be, that it will work.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

A: Whenever you talk about big gas and oil and you talk about a listed species, particularly a reptile – a little-bitty lizard – there’s always the opportunity for cynicism. There’s always the opportunity to say that big government is coming in and trying to tell us what to do, and being over-officious and regulatory. I think this is a classic example, a monumental example, of when people sit down, talk to one another, communicate what it is that they need to continue the economic development on a landscape, and have an opportunity to listen to what it is that needs to take place on that landscape to protect species of this ilk. When they get together and can reach agreement then it works. So there isn’t this situation where the government is being dictatorial. It very much is a collaborative process that everybody gets something out of. We very much would like to see that take place because it creates less of a polarizing situation between people that are trying to make a living on the landscape and the resources, particularly the species and habitat that are dependent on that same landscape.

This interview was edited for clarity and content.

Ruling on dunes sagebrush lizard likely on Thursday

SANTA FE — A day of decision is finally near for the West's most-publicized reptile.

The Obama administration probably will announce Thursday if the dunes sagebrush lizard will be listed as an endangered species, said Tom Buckley, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque.

An occupant of wind-swept dunes in oil country, the lizard exists only in four counties of southeastern New Mexico and four others in West Texas.

Buckley said today the announcement on the lizard's status probably would be made in Washington. He expects either Interior Secretary Ken Salazar or Daniel Ashe, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, to make the finding public.

Debate over whether the lizard should receive federal protection has raged for 18 months. Ashe in December postponed his scheduled ruling on lizard, saying he wanted another six months to consider scientific data.

Numerous Republicans in Congress, especially Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, have argued against endangered status for the lizard. Pearce said thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industry would be in jeopardy if the lizard were listed.

The Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups then accused Pearce of spreading misinformation to scare the public.

Ecologists with the center said the lizard occupies only about 1 percent of public lands in New Mexico where oil drilling was proposed in the last two years.

Read on:  http://www.lcsun-news.com/dona_ana_news/ci_20832091/ruling-dunes-sagebrush-lizard-likely-thursday?source=rss

Lizards, not oil and gas, at risk of extinction – via Herp Digest

By Jay Lininger, Las Cruce Sun News,  3/12/12

Only 2 percent of the Permian Basin oil and gas lands in southeast New Mexico and west Texas are habitat for the rare dunes sagebrush lizard. Yet oil-friendly Chicken Littles continue to squawk that the sky will fall if the lizard is protected as an endangered species.

State Rep. Dennis Kintigh (R-Roswell) has claimed wildly that: "The negative impact the listing will have on jobs is frightening. The effect on New Mexico's economy and the ability of the state to fund education and health care for the poor would be devastating."

But the lizard's shinnery oak sand dune habitat makes up a tiny sliver of New Mexico - less than a half-million acres.

And there's no shortage of drilling opportunities elsewhere. Oil and gas firms own roughly 7,000 drilling permits that have been issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management but not yet developed. That figure has remained steady for more than a year. While industry has leased roughly 38 million acres of public land, it is actively producing or exploring on just 16 million of those acres, according to the BLM.

Moreover, oil and gas leases offered by the BLM on public land in New Mexico vastly outnumber those purchased by industry. Indeed, the only barrier to drilling is the industry itself.

Mr. Kintigh has inflated the minuscule lizard into a Godzilla-like menace, stoking fear that endangered species protection will wreck the economy as part of an ideological agenda to roll back protections for air, water, lands and wildlife.

Kintigh accepted $35,000 from the oil and gas industry in the 2010 election cycle - almost 20 percent more than he received from all other donors of campaign cash combined, according to Project Vote Smart. In short, the industry is his main backer.

At the behest of U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who categorically opposes federal wildlife protections, Kintigh audaciously convened a farce "science review" of the proposal to protect dunes sagebrush lizard as endangered. Kintigh stacked his panel with people lacking expertise on the lizard who voiced opposition to its protection before they showed up, including a cowboy museum curator, a rancher and two petroleum geologists - in addition to Kintigh himself, a retired FBI agent. Conveniently, they concluded the animal should not be protected.

In contrast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained independent peer review of its proposal by scientists - including the world's foremost experts on dunes sagebrush lizards - who supported protections. The science-based proposal will help to safeguard the animal's future, and it will help to protect the environment upon which we all depend.

The New Mexico Game and Fish Department forbids deliberate harm to dunes sagebrush lizards under threat of fines or imprisonment. But even that law does not protect habitat, which continues to be lost as society escalates its demand for fossil fuel.

Since 2009, the BLM has leased nearly 30,000 acres of lizard habitat for drilling. New roads, drilling pads and other infrastructure fragment habitat and inch the animal toward extinction.

Voluntary agreements to conserve lizard habitat have no teeth and therefore leave key habitat highly vulnerable. Industry's refusal to concede an inch to prevent extinction - even on a mere 2 percent of the Permian Basin - makes a strong case for federal protection.

Turning a blind eye to the permanent loss of an animal, for the sake of short-term profit, is a betrayal of future generations - and telling the public that helping that vanishing animal will bring economic calamity is dishonest and cynical. Mr. Kintigh should serve the American people and their future, not the special interest that bankrolls him.

Jay Lininger is an ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity in Albuquerque.

Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Proposed for Endangered Listing in ESA

More than eight years after the Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned to earn protection for the imperiled dunes sagebrush lizard, this week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed to declare the species endangered. The light-brown, yellow-eyed lizard -- about the length of a human hand from nose to tail -- dwells in the dunes of New Mexico and Texas, where it buries itself in cool, white sand in the shade of shinnery oaks to avoid predators and regulate its body temperature. Unfortunately, oil and gas development and herbicide spraying are fast destroying the habitat of this rare reptile -- which already has the second-smallest range of any North American lizard. The species was first found to warrant federal protection in 2004 following our 2002 petition, but instead of adding it to the endangered species list, the feds made it a "candidate" for Endangered Species Act status -- putting off real protection indefinitely.


"The unique dunes sagebrush lizard may finally be receiving the help it needs to survive," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. "Unfortunately, during eight years of delay, the lizard lost more of its habitat to oil and gas development, putting it at greater risk of extinction and making recovery harder."

Herp Digest Volume # 10 Issue # 54 12/16/10