Conference Opinion Memorandum for Amendments to the Lesser Prairie Chicken and Dunes Sagebrush Lizard CCA and CCAA

This memorandum represents reinitiation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2008 intra-Service Conference Opinion on the proposed issuance of a section 10(a)(1)(A) Enhancement of Survival Permit to the Center of Excellence, pursuant to section 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) as amended (Act). The Center of Excellence applied for the Permit for incidental take of the lesser prairie- chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) and dunes sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.

Learn more about sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus), formerly known as the sand dune lizard, in association with the implementation of a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances between the Center of Excellence and the Service, and its parent document, the Candidate Conservation Agreement, between the Center of Excellence, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Service, in the state of New Mexico. A section 10(a)(1)(A) Enhancement of Survival permit associated with the Conservation Agreement with Assurances was originally authorized and issued to the Center of Excellence on December 8, 2008.