Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity and Portland Audubon filed notice they intended to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to list the streaked horned lark as threatened and a rule the agency finalized that exempts farming activities within its habitat. The two groups argue that the songbird, which inhabits the open grasslands and prairies of western Oregon and Washington, should be listed as endangered and not threatened. According to a population survey conducted more than a decade ago, there are an estimated 1100 to 1600 larks remaining. The USFWS first listed the streaked horned lark as threatened nearly a decade ago, and allowed for an exemption to farming activities on open fields and prairies the larks use for nesting. That agricultural exemption has now been extended to Washington state as well, with the agency arguing it will “meet both land management considerations and the conservation needs of the streaked horned lark.” Noah Greenwald is the endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Roger Beyer is the executive director of the Oregon Seed Council, a trade association which advocates on behalf of seed farmers and the seed industry in Oregon.