Dunes Sagebrush Lizard
Dunes Sagebrush Lizard - Photo Credit: Mike Hill
The oil and gas industry has been a proactive force for effective conservation of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard in southeast New Mexico. The industry believes that the existing and emerging Candidate Conservation Agreements offer the best chance of actually helping the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard to survive, while allowing for the land access necessary for current and planned oil and gas production in the Permian Basin.
The oil and gas industry is proud of its leadership role in developing and implementing a Collaborative Management Plan for the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard. The plan was developed in collaboration with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, ranchers, and other interested parties. The plan contains detailed requirements governing land management activities on over 70% of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard’s range in New Mexico. Current and pending conservation agreements encompass 1.44 million acres in New Mexico including over 300,000 acres of Dunes Sagebrush Lizard habitat.
The conservation agreements in place also provide millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry to be used anywhere within Dunes Sagebrush Lizard habitat (not just on oil and gas leases). The funds provided are used for those projects the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management deem most valuable for conservation of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard.
The oil and gas industry strongly supports continued use of the Collaborative Management Plan and associated Candidate Conservation Agreements as the best path forward for effective common sense conservation. The industry opposes listing of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard under the Endangered Species Act.
Endangered species listing would do little to improve the plight of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard and may even cause greater harm because the funds voluntarily provided by the oil and gas industry for ongoing conservation would likely be diverted to legal and administrative costs that would inevitably result from Endangered Species Act listing. Listing alone provides no money and no plan for conservation. Such money and activities are now underway in the collaborative processes in place and should be allowed to continue.
The New Mexico Oil & Gas Association has been active in efforts to continue the cooperative approach to conservation of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard and to avoid listing under the Endangered Species Act. For more information, refer to Comments of New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and others on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s December 14, 2010 Proposed Rule to List the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as Endangered (Pdf File).
