The story of the lesser prairie chicken exemplifies why many Americans are wary of – if not downright hostile to – environmentalists.

When federal officials, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, moved to list the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species, the decision was immediately attacked by most Western Republicans, the oil industry and many agriculture-related groups.

Typically, declaring an animal “threatened” or “endangered” means a long list of restrictions and prohibitions. In this case, the federal government promoted what it called voluntary measures, but which opponents argued were severe restrictions on when and how oil companies could explore for oil and maintain wells. Farmers, ranchers and others who owned land deemed important habitat were subject to the same voluntary-but-not-really rules.

Federal officials did not act suddenly or randomly when they announced their intentions in late 2012 to list the bird as threatened. They were responding to a long legal campaign by environmental groups.

Increasingly, environmentalists use serial lawsuits to win their political battles. They go to court for years or decades to force the federal government to take certain actions.

In the case of the lesser prairie chicken, they got lucky, finally, when a prolonged drought struck while a sympathetic president was in office.

Drought takes a toll on wildlife, and the three-year drought in the southwest was both severe and widespread.

Nature is not a Walt Disney movie. In such times of duress, animals starve, fail to reproduce, and succumb more easily to disease. It wasn’t just lesser prairie chickens that suffered, but pheasants, frogs and numerous other species.

Environmentalists and federal officials exploited the situation to justify new regulatory protections for the bird.

The restrictions and prohibitions covered the birds’ known habitat, especially breeding areas known as leks. The federal rules affected parts of five states: Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico.

To many in the region, the move was another effort of government to grab more control over their land, their businesses and their lives.

They argued that the birds’ numbers would rebound when the drought ended.

The oil and gas industry filed its own lawsuit to challenge the new regulations.

In 2015, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to adequately study the issue before making its decision. A year later, the Obama administration dropped plans to appeal.

By then, the region had recovered from the drought. Bird numbers had rebounded.

A survey of lesser prairie chickens conducted by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2016 showed the population had soared to more than 25,000, from less than 18,000 three years earlier.

This year’s survey showed another huge jump, to more than 33,000 birds.

Wildlife biologists warn, however, that the survey was taken before a late spring blizzard blasted through the area during the prime nesting period.

Also, aerial surveys are not exact, officials said.

“The bottom line is that the population trend over the last five years indicates a stable population, which is good news for all involved in lesser prairie-chicken conservation efforts,” said Roger Wolfe, program manager for the lesser prairie chicken project for WAFWA.

The project is one arm of a multi-faceted effort to nurture survival of the species. The initiative also involves the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a network of individual property owners and state and non-government organizations.

Officials credit the initiative and the weather for the huge turnaround in bird numbers.

Unimpressed, environmentalists restarted their legal battle to get the lesser prairie chicken relisted.

They claim that the science and surveys that show bird populations are stable or growing are suspect.

So it seems that many environmentalists who criticize others for refusing to accept the science of climate change are similarly tempted to dismiss science that doesn’t fit their political views.

It’s another case in which politics trump science.

When that happens, whether on the right or the left, Americans lose trust in both government and science.

 

A long line of intelligence authorities and security officials have now testified before Congress that Russia worked in numerous ways to influence the 2016 presidential elections.

Jeh Johnson, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, testified that Russia acquired hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and then directed their dissemination.

Bill Priestap, a top counterintelligence official with the FBI, told a congressional panel that Russians “used fake news and propaganda … (and) spread the information to as many people as possible,” according to coverage provided by Time magazine. Their intent was to help Donald Trump and hurt Clinton.

And Samuel Liles, Homeland Security’s acting director of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Cyber Division, said Russians attempted to infiltrate the voting and voting registration systems of 21 states. He also testified that Russia succeeded in hacking “a small number” of systems, according to a Washington Post article.

Officials refuse to disclose what states were targeted and which were hacked.

Rather than pursue the people and governments responsible for these crimes, President Trump and his loyalists would rather chase their own brand of bogeymen.

For several months, Trump has claimed that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2016 election, which he says is the only reason he lost the popular vote. The president has provided no evidence for his claim, only discredited speculation by a partisan who he named to his commission, which is led by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach.

Recently, Kobach told state officials across the nation to provide him with personal information on every U.S. resident who has voted or is registered to vote. The information Kobach wants includes every American’s voting history, date of birth, partial Social Security number and political affiliation.

Faced with real and documented proof of Russian interference in U.S. elections, the president’s solution is to launch an intrusive and politically rooted investigation into U.S. voters.

There can be no doubt any information collected by the commission will be used to further the political aims of the president and his loyalists.

Kansans have seen enough of Kobach’s antics to understand that his top priority as secretary of state has been to suppress voter turnout among those with differing political views.

Undoubtedly, some U.S. residents vote illegally. They vote twice. Or they vote even though they aren’t citizens. Or they vote using the identification of dead people.

The ways and means are as old as the country. And according to every legitimate study conducted, their numbers are so small as to be insignificant.

Yes, it’s true Kobach has caught a few here in Kansas.

It’s worth noting, however, that for every voter fraud conviction Kobach claims, hundreds of citizens have been denied their right vote because of obstacles Kobach has created.

The last time I voted, an elderly woman who had come with her husband to vote was turned away because she had no identification that the state of Kansas would accept as valid.

There also were documented cases last fall of people who followed all the rules but still couldn’t get their votes counted because of what Kobach called technical problems with his office’s voter registration system.

Those who are sincerely dedicated to ensuring the integrity of our elections understand that denying people their vote is just as wrong as casting a vote to which one is not entitled.

It’s troubling that our president and his supporters would rather investigate us than the Russians.

And it’s just as troubling that the investigation would be entrusted to Kobach, who was recently fined $1,000 for unethical behavior in federal court.

The fine and case involved his plans for the commission he leads.

Kobach was sanctioned for making “patently misleading representations” to the court and “deceptive conduct.”

Yet, Trump took to social media to question not the motives of Kobach, but of state officials who are balking at cooperating with Kobach’s investigation.

“Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL,” Trump tweeted. “What are they trying to hide?”

Given the president’s decision to dismiss a real election scandal and to focus on a fictional one, Americans might ask the same question of the White House.

The men who gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 were not superheroes.

Mere humans, they were endowed by their creator with certain rights, but also plagued by flaws and weaknesses.

Some owned slaves. Almost all denied women basic rights. Most believed the Indians of North America (and all non-white people) were inferior species.

Still, what these men achieved was remarkable; they wrote and approved the Declaration of Independence.

Historical context matters. In an age when indignation substitutes for integrity and partisanship is confused for patriotism, it’s worth considering how we have evolved over two centuries.

In that spirit, here’s a quiz to get us thinking about where we’ve been, and where we want to go.

What is now Kansas became part of the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. From what country did the United States buy the huge tract west of the Mississippi River?

A. Great Britain

B. Spain

C. France

The correct answer is C. Led by President Thomas Jefferson, the United States paid about 3 cents an acre for about 828,000 square miles of land, opening the West to U.S. settlement.

While we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, the current U.S. government was formed with the approval of the U.S. Constitution. In what year was it ratified?

A. 1788

B. 1778

C. 1782

The correct answer is A. The Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve it.

Two former presidents died on July 4, 1826, the nation’s 50^th anniversary. They were:

A. James Madison and James Monroe

B. George Washington and John Adams

C. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

The correct answer is C. Adams and Jefferson started off as friendly colleagues, but became bitter political rivals who didn’t speak to each other for years. They eventually reconciled and became pen pals.

Dwight Eisenhower claimed Abilene as his hometown, and his museum and library are there. But he was not born in Kansas. In what state was he born?

A. Ohio

B. Texas

C. Oklahoma

The correct answer is B. Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, on Oct. 14, 1890. The family moved to Abilene in 1891.

Many early U.S. presidents owned slaves. Only one is known to have freed his slaves upon his death. He was:

A. Thomas Jefferson

B. George Washington

C. Andrew Jackson

The correct answer is B. Jefferson wrote about the evil of slavery, but did not emancipate his own slaves. George Washington did. Andrew Jackson, president as anti-slavery forces gained political clout, owned more than 100 slaves and ardently supported the rights of slave owners.

When he signed this document on Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln freed slaves in states that had seceded:

A. Emancipation Proclamation

B. Gettysburg Address

C. The 14^th Amendment

The correct answer is A. Lincoln’s action did not end slavery everywhere, but it marked the beginning of the end.

Who was the youngest man to become U.S. president?

A. Barack Obama

B. John Kennedy

C. Theodore Roosevelt

The answer is C. Roosevelt was 42 when he was sworn in as president in September 1901, following the assassination of William McKinley. Kennedy was 43 when he took office, and Obama was 47.

What is the oldest, permanently inhabited city settled by Europeans in the United States?

A. Jamestown, Virginia

B. St. Augustine, Florida

C. Santa Fe, New Mexico

The answer is B. Spanish explorers founded St. Augustine in 1565. Santa Fe lays claim to 1607. And Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement, also was formed in 1607. Putting aside colonial settlements, Taos, New Mexico, likely holds the title as the oldest city in the U.S. that is still inhabited. The Pueblos at Taos are more than 1,000 years old.

It wasn’t until the 20^th century that women won the right to vote. The 19^th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in what year:

A. 1920

B. 1940

C. 1905

The answer is A. Kansas, however, was more progressive. It extended equal voting rights to women in 1912.

“America the Beautiful” started life as a poem written by poet and professor Katherine Lee Bates. A trip from her native Massachusetts in 1893 inspired the work. Where did she travel to?

A. Smoky Ridge Mountains in Tennessee

B. Pikes Peak in Colorado

C. Yosemite National Park in California.

The answer is B. Like many of us, Bates marveled at the view from Pikes Peak, and at the natural riches found from “sea to shining sea.”

Thanks for playing and have a great Fourth.