Posted on 01/30/2005 6:57:48 AM PST by Grampa Dave
Jumping Mouse Loses Federal Protection
Sat Jan 29,12:44 AM ET
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Preble's meadow jumping mouse, once seen as a costly impediment to development, is now viewed by the government as a critter that never really existed — and is no longer in need of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
AP Photo
The Interior Department said Friday that new DNA research shows the 9-inch mouse, which can launch itself a foot and a half into the air and switch direction in mid-flight, is probably identical to another variety of mouse common enough not to need protection.
"That action is based on new research that indicated the Preble's meadow jumping mouse should not be classified as a separate mouse," Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson said Friday, calling it "an example of the use of best available science that was peer-reviewed."
Manson and other Interior officials cited a peer-reviewed but unpublished study by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science suggesting the Preble's mouse is genetically identical to the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse. The study was paid for by Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, the Energy Department, the state of Wyoming and the Denver museum.
Interior officials acknowledged that 14 peer reviewers had split 8-6 to narrowly support the study's conclusions.
Based on the study, the Fish and Wildlife Service will propose removing the Preble's mouse from the government's endangered species list about a year from now. It will remain protected until then. The Preble's mouse has been considered a distinct subspecies based on a 1954 study that looked at the skulls of three mice and the skins of 11 others.
Nearly 31,000 acres have been designated critical mouse habitat for the Preble's mouse along streams in Colorado and Wyoming, including large parts of Colorado's Front Range, where sprawl is booming amid the foothills and the prairie. The mouse also has blocked construction of reservoirs despite a continued drought there.
Environmentalist groups called Interior's decision a political one.
"This proposal is a devastating blow to open space across the Front Range, to good science and to the public interest," said Jeremy Nichols, conservation director for the Laramie, Wyo.-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.
The decision came in response to twin petitions filed in December 2003 by Wyoming and the Denver-based Coloradans for Water Conservation and Development, an advocacy group for farmers, businesses and home builders. Kent Holsinger, an attorney for the Denver group, said the meadow jumping mice are abundant enough to survive without federal protection.
Rep. Barbara Cubin (news, bio, voting record), R-Wyo., called the action "good news both for private property owners in Wyoming and for those who enjoy the use of our public lands."
Sen. Wayne Allard (news, bio, voting record), R-Colo., said the decision points out the need to revamp the Endangered Species Act. "Although the act has noble goals, listing errors harm not only the credibility of the act, but also harm people such as farmers and ranchers whose lives are affected by a faulty species listing," he said.
Builders, landowners and local governments have spent as much as $100 million by some estimates protecting the Preble's meadow jumping mouse since it was added to the federal list in 1998 as a species whose survival was considered "threatened."
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We hope that this is the first of a huge tidal wave of removal of idiotic ESA's in the next 4 years.
The first few times, you see one of the critters launch itself and change directions, you wonder if your eyes really saw what was happening.
Wow! Get out the Holy Hand Grenade!
Brought to you at taxpayers expense by the same group that tells you that large corporations control the U.S.
These Enviral Whacko foundations besides being funded by our tax $'s, receive money from the super rich elite left wing fascists's non profits. Like Terroriza Heinz's various phoney non profits.
"9-inch mouse, which can launch itself a foot and a half into the air and switch direction in mid-flight"
Rodentius Kerrius?
I remember when I was little... we had poultry... and my dad left a big tub of bird seed open.
In the morning... we found a VERY stuffed and round little mouse in there, too foodlogged to move. LOL! It had to jump in there because of the sleek round sides and the very large rim.
You win.
It went from jumping mouse to "Help, I ate too much, fell down and can't move" mouse.
Insert obligatory Michael Moore mouse joke here...
Great!
The former jumping mouse in your family legends was infected with Michael Moore Mouse syndrome. Then it got too fat from over eating to jump. It fell down and just laid there!
And we have a winner....
"This proposal is a devastating blow to open space across the Front Range,"
These wackos just showed what we all suspected: This has nothing to do with protecting endangered species, and everything to do with impeding land use.
The people of Wyoming have been punished by East Coast and West Coast Watermelon senators and congressits for being too conservative for over a decade.
LOL... you're sweet... :o)
This is what happens when college students are paid to "find" "endangered species" and map them.
A friend that used to work for me in the IT industry, spent his college summers in Montana doing just that.
(He was a Bio major)
The objective was to find flora or fauna that "looked different", and catalog them.
If the object had "some difference" from the available reference subjects, WHA LA! A "new species"!
Resultingly, if someone proposed "developing" in a particular area, "Sorry, there there's endangered species in there, no can do."
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