On October 25, 2022, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) over the agency’s failure to timely finalize a proposed rule to list the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) (LEPC). CBD seeks an order from the court declaring the Service is in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to timely list the LEPC and requiring the Service to publish one or more final rules by a date certain.

On June 1, 2021, and in response to a 2016 petition to list the LEPC, the Service proposed to list two distinct population segments (DPS) of the LEPC. The agency proposed to list the Southern DPS (including the Shinnery Oak Ecoregion in New Mexico and Texas) as endangered and the Northern DPS (including the Sand Sagebrush Ecoregion, Mixed Grass Ecoregion, and Short Grass/Conservation Reserve Program Ecoregion in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas) as threatened with an ESA section 4(d) rule.

More than 400 comments were filed in connection with the proposed listing rule. The Biden Administration’s Spring 2022 Unified Agenda had indicated a final rule was anticipated by June 2022.