DENVER, CO — A coalition of conservation groups today filed an official Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a new policy adopted by the Bush administration that allows the agency to limit protection under the Endangered Species Act to portions of a species’ range, rather than protecting species as a whole. The suit would focus on the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, which in August was removed from protection as an endangered species in Wyoming, but not in Colorado. The Bush administration’s highly controversial interpretation of the Act endangers wildlife around the country, which, like the jumping mouse, could be at risk of losing protections in portions of their ranges unless the Service retracts this new policy.
On July 9th the Service announced that it would remove protections for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse in Wyoming while keeping the Colorado populations on the endangered species list. The decision took effect August 11th and the jumping mouse in Wyoming currently has no protections.
The jumping mouse was first protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998 because habitat loss and degradation along Front Range streams led to its disappearance from much of the urban corridor in Colorado and Wyoming.
“Endangered species around the country could lose protections unless this illegal move by the Bush administration is stopped right away,” said Erin Robertson, Senior Staff Biologist with Center for Native Ecosystems in Denver. “The fate of the mouse is important, but there is much more at stake.”
The decision to remove protections from the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse in Wyoming is one of several that the Service has made since a March 2007 memo from the Office of the Solicitor claimed that the Endangered Species Act allows the agency to protect only the most threatened part of an endangered species’ range. Other examples include recent decisions to protect only a portion of the ranges of the Gunnison’s prairie dog and the Queen Charlotte goshawk.
The July decision was the latest in a string of attempts by the Bush administration to get around protecting the mouse under the Endangered Species Act. For example, the Service claimed in 2005 that the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse was too closely related to jumping mice in South Dakota to warrant continued protection, and proposed that the mouse lose its endangered status throughout its range. But in 2006 an independent scientific panel concluded that the report the Service had relied on for this proposal was based on contaminated data, and that the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse was unique and should remain protected by the Endangered Species Act.
“The science is settled,” said Dr. Sylvia Fallon, Staff Scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. “The mouse is unique and in trouble. Mice don’t read maps – it makes no sense for protections to end at the state line.”
Last summer, under pressure from Congress to account for politically motivated decisions about endangered species, the Service admitted that the 2005 proposal to remove protections was influenced by political appointee Julie MacDonald, and that MacDonald slashed the amount of critical habitat designated for the mouse. Earlier the Department of the Interior had launched an investigation into MacDonald’s activities and concluded that she inappropriately overruled agency scientists.
“The Service squandered this opportunity to salvage its scientific integrity,” said Noah Greenwald, Science Director for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Wyoming’s mice are just as important for the species’ survival as those in Colorado.”
“The jumping mouse, the streams it calls home, and other wildlife that depends on these healthy riparian areas will suffer from the Bush administration’s political gerrymandering,” said Jason Rylander, Staff Attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “It makes no sense for the protection of this imperiled mouse to depend on which side of the state line it lives.”
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance’s Wild Species Program Director Duane Short said, “The Service’s decision on the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse splits the imperiled mouse’s protection and creates a much greater risk of extinction. The overall effect of the Service’s policy will be to whittle away habitat protections and reduce the chances of survival for endangered species.”
The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse has large hind feet, long hind legs, and is capable of impressive athletic feats. Using its long tail as a rudder, the mouse can launch itself 18 inches into the air and switch direction mid-flight.
For a high-resolution image of the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, the final decision, the memo from the Office of the Solicitor, and other supporting materials, visit: Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse.
