GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is holding a public meeting in southwest Kansas on the proposal process for listing the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening at Garden City Community College. A final decision on listing the lesser prairie chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act is expected later this year.

Kansas has the largest concentration of lesser prairie chickens. The birds are also found in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.

The five states are also involved in an effort to develop a range-wide conservation plan to address the birds’ decline and to keep the lesser prairie chicken from becoming a threatened species.