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Ranch economic aspects of Lesser Prairie Chicken habitat conservation efforts in central USA rangelands
Author
Tanaka, JA
Maczko, KA
Windh, JL
Publisher
XII International Rangeland Congress
Publication Year
2025
Body

The lesser prairie chicken has been listed as a threatened and endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in distinct population segments. Approximately 95% of the species' habitat is in private land ownership. Conservation efforts focus on these lands, with funding potentially supplied through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Under EQIP, practice payments are made to landowners to implement planned conservation practices. This project estimates the economic impact of implementing lesser prairie chicken conservation practices on small and large representative ranches in 4 Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA). Economic models were developed in the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS) as recursive linear programs and run for 20 years. Random precipitation patterns and cattle price sets were used. Baseline models were first developed to balance forage with the average herd size. Models evaluated practices on all or half the rangeland area, with the ranch paying 100, 25, or 0% of the conservation cost and then compared to baseline models. The baseline models were based on a small and a large representative ranch for each MLRA with no conservation practices or payments. Results show that restoring lesser prairie chicken habitat on private rangeland may or may not be profitable, depending on ranch size, area treated, forage response, cattle prices, and how much o f the conservation practice cost is paid by the rancher. For all analysis scenarios and cattle prices, small and large ranches have higher household income (HI) when they pay 0% of the cost, regardless of treatment area. Small and large ranches show a decrease in HI when the ranch pays 25% of the conservation cost. These results may not be applicable to every ranch, so an individual ranch analysis should be conducted before participation in LPC conservation. Ranchers should also determine if profit, household income, or some combination is most important. The basic framework used in this study can guide individual ranch analysis.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Additional Information
This paper is part of the larger XII International Rangelands Congress Proceedings. Page Numbers: 1222-1228. Theme: Theme 4 / Poster presentations – Theme 4
ISSN
978-0-646-72121-7
Conference Name
International Rangeland Congress
Collection
International Rangelands Congress
Keywords
ranch economics
lesser prairie chicken
conservation practices