Crown Capital Managemenet

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There is a looming train wreck coming on the Southern Plains stretching from Texas to Colorado to New Mexico. In the middle of environmental and energy interests is the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a yellow crowned member of the Grouse family that engages in an elaborate courting "dance" every spring.

These chickens once covered a vast, five state range, but their population has been decimated by 90%, according to most estimates. The cause is no mystery. Over a century of land conversion from prairie to rangeland and cropland, and more recently the boom in oil, gas and wind energy on the plains has come at the direct expense of our signature prairie species.

So we face a classic "protect the environment" vs. "create jobs and economic growth" scenario. Unlike most clashes between these often competing interests, there is a solution to this one where both sides can get what they most want.

Here's how: by adopting an already well-established process known as conservation banking.

According to the National Mitigation Banking Association, conservation banks are permanently protected lands that contain natural resource values for species that are threatened and endangered. Conservation banks function to offset damage to threatened and endangered species that occurred elsewhere.

Thus, if you damage the habitat for a protected species, or the species itself, you must compensate with additional improved habitat for that same species in the appropriate ecological region.

This process is regulated primarily by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS).

According to speciesbanking.com 117 conservation banks havealready emerged in 12states, and so far permanently protected and improved 119,575 of key habitat. Habitat credits for Gopher Tortoise and Florida Panthers, Fairy Shrimp and Garter Snakes, are all sold daily from conservation banks as mitigation for otherwise prohibited development.

This regulatory framework represents what is too often absent in environmental outcomes: a market based approach. Instead of relying solely on government agencies, taxpayers, and conservation-mind