No effect of the Texas Conservation Plan on oil and gas well approval in dunes sagebrush lizard habitat in Texas

The DSL is a small imperiled reptile found only in the shinnery oak sand dune habitats of eastern New Mexico and West Texas. In 2012, the Texas Conservation Plan (TCP) was adopted in Texas to protect the lizard and its habitat from activities including oil and gas development and agricultural expansion. We used data on oil and gas well approvals in Texas from before and after the agreements, inside and outside of DSL habitat, to check for an effect of the agreements. Well locations were mapped using ArcGIS to classify each as inside or outside of habitat based on the 2011 habitat map, then tallied across location and year using R. The data show that annual well approvals inside DSL habitat are no different after the agreements were adopted than the rate of approval outside the species' habitat.