Habitat Exchanges: Achieving Landscape-Scale Mitigation Success In an Era of Expanding Energy Development

The rapid expansion of energy development across the U.S. West, in combination with recent and upcoming Endangered Species Act listing decisions on two western grouse species is serving as a powerful driving force for a new approach to landscape scale mitigation and conservation. Representatives from oil and gas industry, conservation organizations, agricultural interests, and state and federal agencies are collaborating on the development of habitat exchanges as a means to efficiently and effectively mitigate energy development impacts to the lesser prairie-chicken and greater sage grouse, which collectively range across 16 western states. Habitat Exchanges are designed to empower private landowners and public lands managers to participate in mitigation markets that are scientifically sound, transparent, fair, and which yield measurable and sustainable benefits to species at local and landscape scales. Particular strengths of habitat exchanges include their ability to enroll large numbers of landowners across vast landscapes relatively quickly, and to enable conservation priority areas to shift over time, both of which are essential characteristics for reversing declines and achieving conservation goals for landscape-dependent species. We will discuss our experience of working with diverse groups of stakeholders to develop habitat exchanges for the lesser prairie-chicken and greater sage-grouse, and provide details on the basic elements of these systems including their structure, operational roles and responsibilities, and supporting regulatory frameworks.