Opinion ID: 4558193
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: KNRC’s Conservation Plan

Text: KNRC is “an organization of county governments in western Kansas that promotes local government participation in federal and state policy on conservation and natural resource issues.” App. at 8. It is funded and governed by member counties. In 2013, KNRC developed its own conservation plan for the lesser prairie-chicken, which all its member counties adopted. KNRC’s plan “calls for counties to develop and implement policies to control invasive species that encroach on lesser prairie-chicken habitat, to promote sustainable grazing, to better mark fences to prevent entanglement or injury, and to encourage habitat restoration.” App. at 21. Because DOI has not submitted the PECE Rule to Congress, KNRC alleges the Rule has no lawful effect. And because the Rule is not legally effective, KNRC and its member counties claim they may not beneficially rely on the Rule in implementing KNRC’s lesser prairie-chicken conservation plan. This allegedly puts conservation agreement participants “in a bind: they must show that their plans are certain to be implemented and effective but the failure to submit the PECE Rule undermines the incentives necessary to achieve that certainty.” App. at 17–18; see also App. at 21–22.