He appointed James A. Bailey, assistant chief of the Department's Conservation Services Division, to oversee the investigation. At best, a WCA investigation takes 12 to18 months. Until and unless further study is done to truly indicate the status of the lesser prairie-chicken in relation to forces that cannot be adequately controlled by humans, such as weather conditions and predators, we are opposed to any listing as threatened or endangered. In August and October 1997, Cowan and Cattle Growers' president Bill Humphries met with Maracchini and several game commissioners to discuss the state's lesser prairie-chicken situation. Humphries expanded upon those points in his November 1997 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Anecdotal information indicates a substantial decline in numbers and distribution of the birds.
However, there are few data on current status. The evident population decline is dramatic. In 1994, the Department enacted a policy banning all new grazing on any of its lands throughout the state, but the grazing lease continued on the Milnesand. For several decades, until his retirement in 1990, a Game and Fish prairie-chicken area manager maintained these tracts of land. But, that employee slot was reclassified and a replacement position has not become available.