Abstract
As wind energy development expands across the Great Plains, there is potential to adversely affect species that require undisturbed tracts of native grasslands, such as the lesser prairie-chicken Tympanuchus pallidicinctus. Effects of wind development on lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC) movement and demographic rates have been minimal when turbines are sited in cultivated cropland and grassland habitats are available nearby, but there are gaps in the overall understanding of how LEPC populations will respond to wind energy development over the long term. Reducing these knowledge gaps and improving our decision-making process is key to balancing the needs of the wind energy industry and conservation of the species. We evaluated trends in LEPC lek attendance and persistence following construction of the Cimarron Bend Wind Resource Area (CBWRA) in southern Kansas, USA, from 2017 to 2024. We used Bayesian generalized linear regression models to evaluate lek stability and the probability of lek abandonment with various environmental and anthropogenic covariates. We modeled total lek attendance with years since facility construction as a predictor. Of the 37 leks included in analysis, we found leks located in areas with relatively higher density of turbines and had lower annual attendance were less stable, and leks located in areas with relatively higher grass cover were less likely to be abandoned over our eight years of monitoring. However, these effects did not seem to negatively impact the local LEPC population at CBWRA, given that the total lek attendance had a positive trend across the 8-year study, providing additional support that siting turbines in cultivated croplands and conserving large intact tracts of grasslands appear to be important minimization measures for LEPC. Regardless, it remains to be seen how LEPC would be impacted by wind energy development in intact grassland-dominated landscapes (i.e. core habitat).