FWS Withdraws Land Protection Plan Threatening Endangered Species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it is withdrawing the final Land Protection Plan for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, which established an approved acquisition boundary within which the refuge could be expanded by purchasing private land from willing sellers. The plan was based on 15 years of research and collaboration with local partners and imposed no new regulations on private landowners nor impacted their property rights.

"Today’s announcement likely marks the first time the Service has ever withdrawn a Land Protection Plan, creating a disturbing precedent that compromises the integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge System,” said Christian Hunt, National Wildlife Refuges and Parks Director at Defenders of Wildlife. "To withdraw the plan is to undermine science-based management, set back recovery of imperiled species, and deprive landowners of the opportunity to voluntarily sell their properties to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

The Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, the oldest refuge in Texas, protects important grassland and wetland habitats in the Southern High Plains. It is home to the endangered Southern Distinct Population Segment of lesser prairie chicken, determined by FWS as facing immediate extinction. As part of the refuge system’s mission to conserve and restore imperiled species, the Land Protection Plan for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge provided the option to increase needed habitat for this and other species, including the Sonoran pronghorn and migratory birds like the sandhill crane.
 

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