Advocates are urging federal officials to upgrade the bird's status from threatened to endangered.
PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) -- Conservationists are singing a victory tune after a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider protections for the streaked horned lark within one year.
"I'm thrilled the court recognized that the Fish and Wildlife Service shortchanged these stunning larks by dismissing how their small populations clearly increase extinction risk," Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. "I hope these striking little birds will get the protections they so desperately need."
The streaked horned lark is a small, ground-dwelling songbird endemic to the Pacific Northwest. In 2013, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the lark as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and published a rule prohibiting the capture or harm of the species except for certain wildlife, farming and weed management activities. Five years later, the Center for Biological Diversity challenged those actions and a federal judge ordered the service to reevaluate its decisions.
When the service came to the same conclusion -- affirming the threatened listing and the rule -- the Center for Biological Diversity sued in 2023, joined by the Bird Alliance of Oregon.
The conservation groups argued that the service ignored the best available science. U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson agreed and, in a ruling filed late Monday night, ordered the service to issue a new listing determination for the lark within a year.
"Here, there is substantial justification for setting a deadline for remand proceedings: such action is in accord with the nature of the [Endangered Species Act], which mandates that 'timeliness in the listing process is essential,'" the Joe Biden appointee wrote.
The species historically thrived in flat, open areas that were maintained by flooding, fire and sediment movement. Flood control, dams and fire suppression have altered the conditions that maintained those habitats, pushing the bird into large, open man-made areas like grass seed fields, coastal dunes, airports, agricultural fields and recently planted Christmas tree farms.
With a population estimate of around 1,600, the lark has been in decline.
"The court finds that the service's conclusion that small population size is a 'synergistic factor' that can have no influence 'on its own' is not rational," Nelson wrote.
In its 2022 finding, the service acknowledged that "the current abundance of local populations along the Pacific Coast is lower than other areas," but didn't provide an assessment on how the size of those populations is currently affecting their viability.
As for the rule that exempts certain land management activities from the no-take prohibition, Nelson found the service was wrong to expand the rule from the Willamette Valley to the entirety of the lark's range.
"It appears that there is no evidence supporting the expansion of the exception beyond a general claim that it will benefit larks' conservation," Nelson noted.
Joe Liebezeit, statewide conservation director for the Bird Alliance of Oregon, celebrated the court's decision.
"We welcome the court's decision, which found that the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to consider how strongly the effects of small population size are negatively impacting the ability of the larks to reproduce successfully, rendering them in danger of extinction now, not in the foreseeable future," Liebezeit said.
Liebezeit encouraged the service to list the lark as endangered -- a change that would grant broader protections.
"This will be the best chance to help bring this species back from the brink," Liebezeit said.