City might push to delist mouse

The city of Colorado Springs may ask the federal government to remove the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

At its Jan. 27 meeting, the City Council will discuss petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the mouse delisted. But since the agency affirmed the mouse's status as recently as July, local officials are also proceeding with a much-delayed habitat conservation plan that would give local governments the authority to regulate mouse habitat.

The mouse lives only along creeks of the Front Range in Colorado and Wyoming. The Fish and Wildlife Service has found some of the greatest numbers anywhere in northern El Paso County, particularly Monument Creek and its tributaries.

It is identical to a more common jumping mouse, with genetic testing required to tell the difference, and critics have long argued it should not be considered a separate species.

"If you've got to kill an animal in order to determine if it is one or not, perhaps we're slicing the hair a little too fine," said city councilman Tom Gallagher, the main supporter on council of having it delisted.

Developers have felt the most impact from the mouse's status, having to conduct surveys for the mouse and alter plans and abandon projects to avoid disturbing mouse habitat.

The mouse has been listed as "threatened" since 1998.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in July removed it from protection in Wyoming.

"I'm not opposed to the mouse. But the fact of the matter is the mouse is costing this community hundreds of millions of dollars. So what do we have to lose?" Gallagher said, of petitioning the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Diane Katzenberger said anyone can submit such a petition.

"If the petition contains substantial biological information and if we believe the petitioned action may be warranted, we will initiate a status review of the species," she wrote in an e-mail. Such a status review can take years.

Even if the agency agrees to a review, it is unclear if the outcome under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama would be any different than that of President Bush's. Obama's pick for interior secretary, former Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, has been largely silent on the Preble's issue.

Local officials hope to have a habitat conservation plan for the mouse, in the works for a decade, completed this spring. It's a collaboration among the city, Colorado Springs Utilities and El Paso County.

"It was put on the back burner for a little while, just because of the delisting," said Lisa Ross, a Colorado Springs storm water engineer working on the plan. "We were still making progress on it, but maybe not as intently as we would have done if we weren't dealing with the delisting."

Once the plan is completed, which is expected by March or April, the governing boards of all three entities would need to approve it, as would the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The responsibility for regulating impacts on the mouse would then fall on local officials.

"The whole goal would be to make it easier for local developers as well as for the public entities, for us to be able to comply with U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations," Ross said.

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Contact the writer: 476-1605 or srappold@gazette.com