Just an ordinary mouse

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 18, 2004]

By some estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost in attempts to preserve the allegedly endangered "Preble's mouse" on the western fringe of the Great Plains. Now it turns out that there might be no such mouse, and the creature that has been showered with such benevolent concern is nothing more than a common mouse. Jay Lehr, science director for the Heartland Institute, writing in The Eco-logic Powerhouse magazine (September 2004), tells the story of how and why the tiny Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse was designated a sub-species, and put on a protected list in May 1998, in accord with the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

For six years, ESA regulations and restrictions prevailed, which, according to Lehr, have cost builders, local governments and landowners as much as $100 million. He claims that over 31,000 acres of land along Colorado and Wyoming waterways have been designated a "critical habitat" for the rodent.

Last year, Dr. Roy Ramey of the Colorado Farm Bureau began to suspect that the mouse had been erroneously listed, and this year he and colleagues, using modern DNA analysis and more accurate measuring tools than previously available, set about examining skulls and skins. They concluded that the mouse in question is not a separate sub-species at all.

Lehr tells of the agendas of "political environmentalists," who have caused the waste of billions of dollars, the loss of thousands of jobs, and the misuse and non-use of millions of acres of private land. He writes:

Seeking to forestall the extinction of various animal and plant species, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973. To most people, it seemed like a wonderful, compassionate gesture. To experts such as [biologist Dr. J. Gordon] Edwards, who actually read the act, however, it was obvious that a powerful group of dedicated anti-humans had been given almost unlimited power to enforce regulations so loosely written they could mean whatever the administrators wanted them to mean. Individuals accused of harming a species or habitat could be, and have been imprisoned, even though "harm" and "species" were not clearly defined in the original bill.

About the ESA, naturalist Alston Chase, in an article in the Great Falls Tribune (7/30/91), observed, "As a consequence of the ESA this nation may think it's preserving biological diversity when it is not. And worse, it risks hurting the economy by efforts to save populations that are not unique at all."

Lehr continues the story of the mouse:

In one Colorado Springs subdivision, for example, the mouse-related restrictions include a requirement that cats be kept on leashes. In rural areas, protecting the mouse has meant telling ranchers they cannot clear weeds out of their irrigation canals, a rule that reduces the amount of water reaching hay fields in the middle of summer.

One family, Amy and Steve LeSatz, interviewed for the June 11 Associated Press story, have, for years, wanted to build a riding stable on their land, with the intent of teaching riding and roping. For years, their dream has been stalled, because their land was considered special habitat for the Preble mouse.

Lehr hopes that some sanity will be brought to the country's environmental policies, and asks why the normal processes should not continue to weed out those species that fail to adapt to environmental changes -- a reality experienced by thousands of bygone species. He ends by citing the observations of Jim Sims of the Partnership for the West:

In the 30 years since it was enacted, ESA has notched a 99 percent failure rate at recovering species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's own data show that only 12 of the law's roughly 1,300 protected species recovered. That is a success of less than .01 percent. . . .

These fringe activists really want to use this law to take away private property, run farmers off their land, stop all natural resource development, raise energy prices, and turn back the clock of progress in the West.

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