Texas Was Set to Create Its Largest Wildlife Refuge. Then the Feds Did Something They’d Seemingly Never Done Before.

In the far reaches of the Texas Panhandle, the 6,440-acre Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge has been a quiet sanctuary for decades. Outdoor enthusiasts are drawn to its remote beauty, where rugged swaths of wildflowers and mesquite trees shelter the elusive pronghorn antelope and the lesser prairie chicken. Every winter, birders descend on the reserve to witness the skies above the southern High Plains churn with formations of sandhill cranes, making pit stops at the region’s shallow playa lakes .

The state’s oldest wildlife refuge has become the latest flash point in a battle between conservation efforts and the Trump administration’s push for expanded domestic energy development. Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was scrapping a major expansion plan for the