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http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_6270d454-151d-56f0-8bdd-be753e2815ee.html?mode=story
Groups argue wildlife and their habits don't conform to state lines
Groups say wolf ruling should guide mouse decision
Story Discussion Groups say wolf ruling should guide mouse decision
By MEAD GRUVER - Associated Press writer trib.com | Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:30 am | (8) Comments
CHEYENNE -- A recent court ruling on wolves in the northern Rockies should help guide another judge who will decide on federal protection for a mouse species in Colorado and Wyoming, environmental groups argue.
A cattlemen's group says the judge should decide for himself about the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, a critter about the size of other mice but with a 6-inch tail and the ability to leap up to 3 feet to escape predators.
The five environmental groups include the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. They filed suit over the Preble's mouse last year, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to lift threatened species status for the mouse in Wyoming while keeping such protection in Colorado.
The groups filed an opening brief Tuesday in federal court in Colorado.
Fish and Wildlife announced the mouse decision in 2008. Wyoming had mouse habitat not threatened by development, the agency said. Colorado habitat was more at risk.
Environmentalists said the decision was faulty because wildlife and their habitat don't conform to state lines.
"The Preble's, as a species, is endangered. And it's endangered in Wyoming as well as Colorado," Duane Short, with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, said Wednesday.
Specifically, the groups object to a 2007 Interior Department memorandum which established that a species could be protected only in the portion of its range where it has been deemed threatened or endangered.
Environmentalists argue in their brief that the memorandum, which led to the Preble's mouse decision along state lines, should be declared legally invalid.
The groups also urge U.S. District Judge John L. Kane to follow the reasoning of U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Mont. Molloy ruled in August that Fish and Wildlife was wrong to relinquish wolf management in Idaho and Montana while keeping oversight of wolves as an endangered species in Wyoming.
"Molloy's ruling certainly has application to Preble's," said Short.
The Preble's mouse can be found along the Colorado Front Range and into southeast Wyoming, where cattle ranchers, wind energy developers and others have a keen interest in the case.
There is no surprise in environmentalists linking the mouse and wolf cases, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
"We don't concur with Molloy's decision, and this is a different judge in a different circuit," Magagna said. "We'll be encouraging the judge to listen to the arguments and make his own decision and not be influenced by Molloy's decision."
The association and state of Wyoming have intervened in the case on the Fish and Wildlife side. Wyoming assistant attorney general Affie Ellis said the state would file a response to the brief by early February.
Groups argue wildlife and their habits don't conform to state lines
Groups say wolf ruling should guide mouse decision
Story Discussion Groups say wolf ruling should guide mouse decision
By MEAD GRUVER - Associated Press writer trib.com | Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:30 am | (8) Comments
CHEYENNE -- A recent court ruling on wolves in the northern Rockies should help guide another judge who will decide on federal protection for a mouse species in Colorado and Wyoming, environmental groups argue.
A cattlemen's group says the judge should decide for himself about the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, a critter about the size of other mice but with a 6-inch tail and the ability to leap up to 3 feet to escape predators.
The five environmental groups include the Center for Native Ecosystems and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. They filed suit over the Preble's mouse last year, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was wrong to lift threatened species status for the mouse in Wyoming while keeping such protection in Colorado.
The groups filed an opening brief Tuesday in federal court in Colorado.
Fish and Wildlife announced the mouse decision in 2008. Wyoming had mouse habitat not threatened by development, the agency said. Colorado habitat was more at risk.
Environmentalists said the decision was faulty because wildlife and their habitat don't conform to state lines.
"The Preble's, as a species, is endangered. And it's endangered in Wyoming as well as Colorado," Duane Short, with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, said Wednesday.
Specifically, the groups object to a 2007 Interior Department memorandum which established that a species could be protected only in the portion of its range where it has been deemed threatened or endangered.
Environmentalists argue in their brief that the memorandum, which led to the Preble's mouse decision along state lines, should be declared legally invalid.
The groups also urge U.S. District Judge John L. Kane to follow the reasoning of U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Mont. Molloy ruled in August that Fish and Wildlife was wrong to relinquish wolf management in Idaho and Montana while keeping oversight of wolves as an endangered species in Wyoming.
"Molloy's ruling certainly has application to Preble's," said Short.
The Preble's mouse can be found along the Colorado Front Range and into southeast Wyoming, where cattle ranchers, wind energy developers and others have a keen interest in the case.
There is no surprise in environmentalists linking the mouse and wolf cases, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
"We don't concur with Molloy's decision, and this is a different judge in a different circuit," Magagna said. "We'll be encouraging the judge to listen to the arguments and make his own decision and not be influenced by Molloy's decision."
The association and state of Wyoming have intervened in the case on the Fish and Wildlife side. Wyoming assistant attorney general Affie Ellis said the state would file a response to the brief by early February.
