Tiny mouse causes big debate

PHOTO IN

Cutline: A giant debate has and will continue to surround this tiny mouse.

By Rebecca Boyle

rboyle@fortcollinsnow.com

A small rodent the size of a golf ball continues to be a political football in Colorado, after a decision earlier this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep it on a list of threatened species.

If the bald eagle was the symbol of the need for the Endangered Species Act, then its conceivable prey -- the tiny Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse -- is emblematic of criticisms of the act and how it affects farmers, developers and water managers. Conservation groups, on the other hand, say the mouse has drawn attention to the need for protecting open space and streamside habitats.

The tiny mouse is a microcosm of the ongoing debate in the West over development, water use and land rights.

On Nov. 1, the wildlife service issued a proposal to remove the mouse from the list of threatened and endangered species in Wyoming but to keep it on that list in Colorado. The proposal is the latest in almost 10 years of decisions and revisions.

The notion was that the mouse, which lives in riparian areas along the Front Range and into eastern Wyoming, isn't threatened by development in Wyoming. Land use in its Wyoming range is primarily agricultural, and the service doesn't view that as a long-term threat to existing Preble's populations.

In Colorado, however, "development activities have severely altered or destroyed riparian habitat," according to the wildlife service's report. As development continues, even more habitat would be threatened, which could lead to greater losses of the mice, the service said.

The decision on Nov. 1 isn't final, but it maintains the status quo in Colorado until a final determination can be made about the mouse's status, likely next summer.

Republican Colorado lawmakers blasted the decision, saying it didn't make ecological or economic sense.

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, said he has worked on the matter throughout his tenure in Congress and said the decision ignores the wildlife service's own science.

Allard said the decision defied common sense.

"I have a difficult time comprehending how a mouse could nest along Colorado's northern border and wake up one morning listed as an 'endangered species,' cross over into Wyoming to forage for food, and no longer be listed," he said last week. "By noon a mouse could hop back and forth between endangered and non-endangered several times."

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan, held a hearing on the mouse in Greeley in September 2006 along with Richard Pombo, a California congressman who subsequently lost his seat in the midterm elections. Pombo had written a revision of the Endangered Species Act that drew wide criticism from environmental groups. He said the act had done little to restore populations of endangered species.

Musgrave said after the decision that the patchwork of protection for the mouse would exacerbate an already poor situation.

"There is no difference in Preble's mice on northern Weld County ranches than those on ranches across the border that are just a matter of feet away," she said.

She added that the mouse matter has delayed water storage projects at a time when farms are drying up throughout northern Colorado, and builders who have to make accommodations for the mouse are causing housing prices to go up.

Coloradans for Water Conservation and Development, an issue group representing the Colorado Association of Homebuilders, filed an initial petition to de-list the mouse three years ago. On the group's Web site, an attorney for the group cited a 2003 wildlife service economic impact study that said protecting the mouse would cost local governments, landowners and others $183 million a decade.

Environmental groups and the wildlife service, however, say the mouse is a distinct species worth protecting, and what's more, it can serve as a sort of canary in the mine by acting as a call for conservation.

"The Preble's has helped to spur increased attention and action to conserve streamside habitats and open spaces," said Jane Cyphers, a Castle Rock Parks and Recreation Commissioner, in a statement issued by Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems.

The shy, nocturnal mouse was discovered in 1899 by Edward A. Preble and listed in 1998 as a threatened species. It is about 9 inches long, with its tail accounting for almost half that length, with large hind feet adapted for jumping. It has a distinct dark stripe down the middle of its back, bordered on either side by gray to orange-colored fur.

It looks a lot like the more common Bear Lodge jumping mouse, which lives in northeastern Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. It's so similar, in fact, that a geneticist from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science concluded in a recent study that the Preble's was not a distinct subspecies. The wildlife service's decision affirms the opposite, however.

The service intends to have the final decision by June 30, 2008. Even then, it's unlikely that the debate will rest -- not just about the mouse, but the greater questions it highlights about the future of land use in the West.

Learn More

The Preble's finding and other information is available on the Fish and Wildlife Service's Web site at:

http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/preble