Just a few inches long, the sand dunes lizard with bright yellow eyes, a blunt nose, a rounded head, and a faint yellow underlip has sparked a huge controversy between Texas and the federal government.
Formally known as the dunes sagebrush lizard, it can only live under the shade of the shinnery oak that grows in isolated areas of southeast New Mexico and West Texas. In addition, it can only nest in dunes with medium-sized grains of sand—all conditions which exist in the dunes of West Texas—the hottest oil patch in the state that produces the most domestic oil and gas in the nation. The current growth of oil and gas production in the sand dune lizard's limited habitat earns hundreds of millions of dollars for public education in Texas. The Permanent School Fund, which owns about 75,000 acres of mineral rights, helps pay for the state's share of public education. The Permanent University Fund, which owns an estimated 30,000 acres of mineral rights, helps to pay for the university system in the state. University officials estimate the listing could stop the drilling of approximately 1,000 oil and gas wells and eliminate the production of seven million barrels of oil equivalent annually. It would devastate oil and gas production in several counties, including, Gaines, Andrews, Ward, Winkler, and Crane in Texas, and Lea, Chaves, Eddy and Roosevelt in New Mexico.
The idea of listing the lizard as endangered came after environmental groups, such as New Mexico-based Earth Guardians filed lawsuits against the federal government. Then the federal biologists swung into action, but did not collect new data. Rather, they depended on data that went back to the 1960s to determine the lizard’s population distribution and surveys done in 2006 and 2007 which focused on lizard populations in New Mexico. They only found lizards in three locations in Texas.
Because their data is so spotty, biologists cannot say with any certainty, the exact location of current populations. The USFWS therefore proposes that current populations exist in "sites where dunes sagebrush lizards were detected in either 2006 or 2007 likely comprise the last occupied habitat for dunes sagebrush lizards in Texas." In addition, some of the data collected by the USFWS is contradictory. In 2007, they said the sand dune lizard was locally extinct at Monahans Sandhills State Park, but another survey in 2010 found the lizard still in residence. The USFWS states, "we believe pipelines pose a significant threat to the dunes sagebrush lizard..." But, later in the same proposal, it reads, "twenty-four percent of the dunes sagebrush lizards found during BLM surveys were found along pipelines adjacent to shinnery oak dunes..." The USFWS cannot have it both ways. Either pipelines have an adverse affect on populations and they cannot exist there, or they have no effect on populations. Additional factors that may affect the lizard, such as, prolonged drought conditions, predation, disease and competition with other species, never came under consideration.
While the USFWS studied the impact to the environment, they never considered the effect that listing the lizard as an endangered species would have on private property owners or to students in the State of Texas. The state maintains that listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard will have a profoundly negative effect on private property owners, the oil and gas industry and public education in the State of Texas.
Since 2008, the federal government has attempted to work with energy companies and ranchers in New Mexico to finalize conservation agreements that help protect the lizard without shutting down business. However, they did not extend the same courtesy to Texas ranchers and energy companies. In December, the USFWS announced it would delay its final decision for six months while it continued to research additional scientific information on the species and its habitat. “Conservationists support using all the best available science to make species listing decisions, but we don’t see the need to delay listing in this case,” said Mark Salvo of WildEarth Guardians. “In the end, we expect the species to be listed.”
The USFWS continues its research while the State of Texas continues to make its case. A decision is expected in June.
Image Source: Texas General Land Office
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