Our View - Sunday

PROBLEMS WITH MICE
Jumping through hoops for Prebles

   Mickey Mouse shenanigans of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue mocking the Endangered Species Act, which is supposed to protect plants and animals facing extinction. The purpose of the Endangered Species Act was not to serve as a tool for those who disrespect property rights and oppose development, but that's what it has largely become.

   Tuesday, in the latest abuse of the Endangered Species Act, the Fish & Wildlife Service decided the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is not endangered - at least not in Wyoming, where state officials have fought long and hard against protection for the mouse. It was added to the endangered species list in 1998.

   However, Fish & Wildlife officials decided to maintain the mouse as an endangered species in Colorado. Same mice, same terrain, different ZIP codes.

   Wyoming officials wanted the mouse de-listed because of concerns that its protection would interfere with agriculture and future growth and development. Relative to Wyoming, Colorado hasn't put up much of an official ?ght against the abusive listing of the Preble's mouse.

   Not surprisingly, sincere environmentalists aren't pleased. Correctly, they point out that government isn't supposed to make endangered species decisions based on political boundaries. If the mouse is sacred south of the state line, they say, it should be sacred north of the line.

   The Fish and Wildlife Service says Wyoming mice are less at risk from development. Colorado mice are more at risk because of growth along the Front Range. We're to believe these highly athletic mice, known for their high-jumping skills, can't move a few meters if someone builds a house on private property.

   Fish & Wildlife bureaucrats hope people will believe their story, which says the mouse is threatened here by not in slowpoke Wyoming. That's wishful thinking on the agency's part. Reasonable people are more likely to believe this: The Fish & Wildlife Service doesn't care all that much about this mouse, but it does care about having control over private property and growth in Colorado. The agency caved to Wyoming, because it was interfering with no-growth politics in Colorado. The mouse is just a tool. By protecting the mouse in Colorado, government has made Colorado less attractive for investment and development. Private property can be rendered almost useless to its owner, after all, if it's known as a Preble's mice habitat. By de-listing the mouse in Wyoming, the government has given Wyoming an advantage in attracting developers and investors. They won't have to fight the government and environmental activist if a mouse jumps out of the weeds.

   Anyone who's inclined to believe the mouse deserves protection anywhere should consider the plight of other mice. The extermination industry thrives on killing them. Supermarket shelves are full of new and old contraptions and poisons designed to kill mice. Cats kill mice whether or not they're on federal protection lists. Yet we're never at a loss for mice.

   But this mouse, we're told, is something more than just a mouse. It's a rare and endangered subspecies that's special.

   Well, probably not. In December 2003 biologist Rob Ramey, chairman of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science zoology department at the time, released genetic testing results that indicated the Preble's mouse isn't a unique subspecies at all. It's more likely just a common bear lodge jumping mouse - which we can kill with poisons and traps. The presentation of genetic fact so embarrassed and annoyed a ranking official at the Fish & Wildlife Service that he accused Ramey of being "pro-development" and threatened to suspend funding for additional study of the mouse.

   Extreme environmentalists and anti-development activists threatened Ramey and the museum. Ramey told Vincent Carroll, editorial page editor of the Rocky Mountain News, that pressure from inside and outside the museum - and from the Fish & Wildlife Service - finally caused him to resign.

   The results of Ramey's study were published in 2005 in "Animal Conservation," a peer-reviewed journal of the Zoological Society of London. No credible study has drawn conflicting conclusions of substance, though Fish and Wildlife officials found a biologist working for the federal government to reaffirm the Preble's mouse as a unique subspecies. If it's not, after all, they look like buffoons. Worse, they lose their status as de facto Front Range planning czars.

   To most who have followed the story in detail, it's clear the Preble's mouse is merely a mouse and it's not endangered - north or south of the state line. It's a pawn in a power grab to control development and property along Colorado's Front Range urban corridor. It's special, all right, but only for it's government-granted ability to stop tall buildings, and modest homes, in a single bound. But not in Wyoming, where today it's just another mouse.

HOT AIR FROM WORLD'S LEADERS

   President Bush was at the G-8 summit meeting in Japan, and we got a good deal of talk about things the G-8 nations - consisting of the world's leading industrial nations - can't do much about or have little intention of doing much about, and little discussion or significant action on a few problems these countries could do a great deal to alleviate.

   Thus the first day of the summit featured an impasse over what to do about the problem of Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe won re-election by having his minions brutalize and even kill opposition leaders to the point that his opponent dropped out of the race. Bush wants more economic sanctions and an international arms embargo, but the African nations aren't ready to sign on just yet.

   Fine and dandy, but let's get serious. The leading industrial nations aren't going to join a consortium to invade Zimbabwe and throw out Mugabe. His brutal dictatorship is a good target for rhetoric, but he's likely to get away with his latest outrage, so the talk at G-8 is essentially hot air.

   G-8 leaders will likewise blather about the price of oil, but there's little they can do about it.

   The one thing the industrialized countries could alleviate is the world food crisis, but that would take more political will than they are likely to summon. They can't tell China and India to stop growing and demanding more and better food, which is one contributing factor. They can increase food aid to poor countries, but that's a short-term approach that may reduce starvation but not increase supply. But they could end ethanol subsidies and mandates or at least suspend them for a couple of years.

   Using corn for fuel has driven up the price of corn and has had a ripple effect on the price of other agricultural commodities. Ending or suspending ethanol mandates and subsidies wouldn't solve the entire food-price crisis, but it would help. Unfortunately, domestic agricultural interests in the industrial countries are too politically powerful to permit such a sensible step.

   The G-8 summit has always been mostly an opportunity for presidents to show constituents that they are respected as members in good standing of the fabled "international community" than as a forum for actually solving problems. This year was no diffierent.