Members of the Kansas congressional delegation and lawmakers from Oklahoma and other states have introduced a bill to remove the lesser prairie chicken from the threatened and endangered species list.

The bill was introduced by Kansas congressmen Tracey Mann, Ron Estes and Derek Schmidt, along with Senator Roger Marshall.

In November 2022, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule to list the Northern District Population Segment of the lesser prairie-chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act despite an increase in the lesser prairie-chicken population. Rep. Mann’s bill would reverse this rule. 

In a press release, Mann said “For more than a decade, farmers, ranchers, private landowners, agricultural and energy producers have enacted voluntary conservation efforts to preserve the lesser prairie-chicken’s population.”  He said these efforts have the population by more than 15,000.