In one of the most contested cases in Wisconsin Public Service Commission history, commissioners have the choice to save the last remaining greater prairie chickens or doom the iconic threatened native species .
The prairie chicken is one of the most unique and charismatic wildlife species in Wisconsin. People from around the country travel to Portage County each spring to watch their intriguing mating displays. Aldo Leopold stated, “In terms of conventional physics, the prairies grouse represents only a millionth of either the mass or energy of an acre. Yet subtract the grouse and the whole thing is dead.”
Its population in Wisconsin is declining and it was designated as a “threatened species” in 1979. About $50 million, in todays dollars, have been spent as part of a public-private partnership for land acquisition, research and management for the bird whose population is now stabilized at under 500.
However, based on the draft PSC staff recommendation made on Oct. 28, future generations of Wisconsinites will no longer enjoy this natural resource. A large solar field is proposed adjacent to a conservation area for the bird, and in the middle of some of its breeding grounds and habitat.