Pro-Development Group Asks Fish & Wildlife to Delist Mouse

The CWCD has filed a petition with the Fish & Wildlife Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, to de-list the mouse as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The group says that protecting the mouse already has added millions of dollars to the cost of development in Colorado, which ultimately is passed on to consumers. Over the next 10 years, the group estimates protecting the mouse could cost as much as $174 million.

The state of Wyoming has filed a similar petition, asserting that the mouse was erroneously listed as endangered more than five years ago. "While we have always speculated that the Fish & Wildlife Service did not have sufficient information to list the Preble's Meadow jumping mouse, we now have the scientific data to prove it," says CWCD president Jerry Sonnenberg, a farmer/rancher in the small town of Sterling, northeast of Denver.

In the petition, CWCD presents evidence from a study by Rob Roy Ramey II, a scientist with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, that in December concluded that the mouse is not a separate species and its DNA is no different than that of the Black Lodge jumping mouse. The study also concludes that the mouse it not threatened by a loss of habitat, but rather has ample territory that covers many Western states.

"The Endangered Species Act requires that we look at the best available science," Sonnenberg says. "We believe that we have in incredibly strong case for delisting and we hope that [Interior] Secretary [Gale] Norton will give this very close consideration and come to the same conclusion that we have--the Preble's Meadow jumping mouse should never have been listed as a threatened species." Coalition members in the CWCD include the Colorado Concern (an association of more than 50 area CEOs), the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado Farm Bureau, the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the Colorado Association of Home Builders, and the Colorado Apartment Association.