Expected Impacts on Greater Prairie-Chickens of Establishing a Wind Turbine Facility Near Rosalia, Kansas
Prepared for:
Zilkha Renewable Energy
Houston, Texas
By: Dr. Robert J. Robel
Division of Biology
Kansas State University
September 2002

There are 10 species of grouse native to North America. Prairie chickens are grouse and they generally are considered birds of the grasslands. Prairie chickens consist of two taxonomic species, the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) and the greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) (American Ornithologists’ Union 1998).

The lesser prairie-chicken has the most restricted distribution of the two grassland grouse species (Aldrich 1963, Johnsgard 1983). It is found in rangeland dominated primarily by sand sagebrush (Artemisia filifolia) or shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) and bluestem grasses (Andropogan spp.) in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, western Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and southwestern Kansas. Even though this area of the Southern Great Plains is populated sparsely by humans, their activities have had a severe impact on lesser prairie-chicken populations. Intensive livestock grazing and conversion of native rangelands to cropland coupled with recurrent droughts have reduced lesser prairie-chicken habitat by 92% and populations by approximately 97% range-wide since the 1800s (Crawford 1980). Lesser prairie-chicken populations are now fragmented and isolated over much of their original range (Geisen 1998), and the species was petitioned in 1995 for listing under provisions of the Endangered Species Act (Mote et al. 1999). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that listing the species as threatened was warranted, but precluded (Clark 1999). The primary range of the lesser prairie-chicken in Kansas is the southwestern part of the state, far removed from the proposed site of the wind farm near Rosalia, Kansas.

Three subspecies of the greater prairie-chicken are recognized (Aldrich 1963, Johnsgard 1983). The heath hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido), formerly found along the east coast of the United States, became extinct in 1932. The Attwater’s prairie-chicken (T. c. attwateri) is endangered (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1983) and restricted to isolated areas along the Texas coast. The wild population of Attwater’s prairie-chicken now numbers less than 100 birds (Morrow 1999), and efforts are being made to maintain the population through releases of captivity-reared birds. The greater prairie-chicken (T. c. pinnatus) had, and still has, a wider distribution than either the heath hen or the Attwater’s prairie-chicken. Historically, the greater prairie-chicken ranged across the tallgrass prairies of North America from eastern Texas north-westward to Alberta and north-eastward to Michigan and southern Ontario (Figure 1). It has been extirpated or very much reduced in numbers over much of its range, and was numerous enough in only four states (Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota) to be hunted legally during 2001.

Conversion of the tallgrass prairie habitat to intensive agriculture is the primary cause of declines in the greater prairie-chicken population across its original range (Schroeder and Robb 1993). This conversion over much of the midwestern portion of North America greatly reduced or degraded the nesting habitat of greater prairie-chickens and negatively impacted their populations (Christisen 1969, 1985). Predator populations also reduce nesting success of greater prairie-chickens (Lawrence 1982). Other factors reported to negatively affect the numbers of greater prairie-chickens include hunting isolated populations (Hamerstrom and Hamerstrom 1973); reduced insect availability for broods because of pesticide use (Flickinger and Swineford 1983); and interspecific competition with ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) (Vance and Westemeier 1979, Westemeier 1986, Westemeier et al. 1998).

Figure 1. Distribution of the greater prairie-chicken in North America in the past (dashed line adapted from Schroeder and Robb 1993) and present (solid areas adapted from Westemeier and Gough 1999). Solid line delineates the approximate pre-settlement boundary of the tallgrass prairie biome. Map reproduced from Svedarsky et al. 2000:278.

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