Tiny Texas lizard isn’t a big threat

Published 8:28 pm Saturday, October 4, 2014

The last time a lizard made this big of a fuss, Tokyo shook under the weight of Godzilla’s massive footsteps. History shows how that turned out.

But the saga of the dunes sagebrush lizard has come to a more peaceful ending, without a single city destroyed.

A federal judge won’t list the lizard as an endangered species, it was announced on Wednesday.

“U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by environmental groups claiming the Fish and Wildlife Service erred by allowing voluntary conservation agreements to eliminate threats to the dunes sagebrush lizard rather than ensuring its long-term survival under federal law,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

What is the dunes sagebrush lizard? It’s a small, sardonic-looking reptile that lives in ‘shinnery oak sand dune systems’ of New Mexico and four counties in Texas.

The six-inch lizards could have posed a serious threat to oil and gas production in those counties, however.

“The lizard is a habitat-specific species and that habitat is being affected by oil, gas and ranching operations, said Lesli Gray, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported in 2012. “Production could be halted in the lizard’s habitat if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to list the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as an endangered species. … With 80 to 90 percent of county tax revenue coming from oil and gas, that could spell disaster …”

The Permian Basin (where the lizard is found) “produces more than one million barrels of oil a day — 68 percent of Texas’ total production and 20 percent of the production of the lower 48 states,” according to a recent University of Texas study.

But in this relatively rare instance, the Fish and Wildlife Service made the right call — mostly because Texas was ready with a plan of its own.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs recognized the threat early and helped develop the Texas Conservation Plan, which sets aside some acreage but doesn’t bring oil production to a halt.

“I am very happy with the judge’s decision,” Combs said after Wednesday’s ruling. “It supports our basic belief that the TCP provides appropriate conservation for the lizard and reaffirms that the research conducted by Texas A&M University about the DSL helped to provide Fish and Wildlife the best scientific data available to make the decision not to list the species as endangered.”

Sen. John Cornyn deserves some credit, as well. He won a six-month extension in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s process, which allowed time for scientific data to be gathered and for the plan to be put together.

The win also shows the value of cooperation; the Conservation Plan was a joint effort of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas A&M University, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the Texas Farm Bureau, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, Texas Wildlife Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other groups.

All parties showed commendable common sense in this case — that’s refreshing, when lately so many federal rules seem like monsters threatening the multitudes.