Dunes Sagebrush Lizard. Courtesy/USFWS

USWS News:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Marilyn E. Wright, Ph.D., will discuss her agency’s recent listing of the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Wright is the featured speaker at the New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s free “Wildlife Wednesday” event tonight, June 12 in Albuquerque.

The Permian Basin in far southeastern New Mexico and West Texas is the premier oil and gas producing area in the nation. It’s also home to the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, which the USFWS listed as a federally endangered species in May.

Wright is the lead USFWS biologist for the lizard at the agency’s New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office.

According to the USFWS, the lizard occurs in about 4 percent of land in the 86,000 square-mile Permian Basin. Primary threats to the lizard include loss of habitat associated with oil and gas development, sand mining, and changing climate. The agency is working with industry to reduce conflicts between energy production and lizard survival.

Wright’s presentation will start at 5:30 p.m., June 12, at the Marble Brewery Northeast Heights Taproom, 9904 Montgomery Blvd., NE., in Albuquerque.