Don't let Big Oil doom these species to extinction

 

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The Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico is the highest-producing oil field in the country.   It's also home to three of the United States’ most endangered animals: lesser prairie chickens, dunes sagebrush lizards, and freshwater mussels called Texas hornshells. Without safeguards for their home, these species will go extinct.   Decades of relentless oil drilling — plus livestock grazing, mining and pollution — have pushed all three to the brink of extinction.    Dunes sagebrush lizards, native to a small part of the Permian Basin, have lost more than 95% of their habitat to oil and gas development and sand mining for fracking.   Lesser prairie chickens also now occupy a fraction of their historic range — even the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service admits that losing just a small amount of suitable habitat could send the species into a death spiral.   And Texas hornshells are down to only five known populations in the United States.     These three species are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Act requires the Service to give these species critical habitat — but the agency is sitting on its hands.     Lesser prairie chickens, dunes sagebrush lizards, and Texas hornshell mussels urgently need federal officials to protect the places they need to survive and recover.    Tell the federal government to enact the strongest possible critical habitat designations now.   Take Action

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