Welcome to New Mexico, where a colorful chicken and a very small mouse are causing a big ruckus.
On Tuesday, four counties in New Mexico joined in a lawsuit complaining about the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listing the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species.
The announcement came just one day after the Fish and Wildlife Service declared the meadow jumping mouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, giving it greater habitat protection but angering ranchers in a southern New Mexico county who are odds with the federal government over water and property rights.
"Yes, New Mexico has become a focal point," said Bryan Bird, program director for WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group based in Santa Fe that hailed both decisions. "On the one hand, we're blessed to have these beautiful, unusual animals in our state, but on the other hand, we've mistreated our lands so badly that they require" listings to protect them.
Critics of the meadow jumping mouse listing say the federal government moved too quickly.
"Once again, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chose to cater to big-city radical special interests instead of protecting our jobs, and ignored the fact that conservation and economic growth are not mutually exclusive," Rep. Steve Pearce, R-New Mexico, said in a statement.
In the meantime, officials from Eddy, Roosevelt, Lea and Chavez counties — in the heart of New Mexico's oil patch — joined a lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, claiming the decision to protect the lesser prairie chicken puts too heavy a burden on the industry and accusing the feds of not following correct procedures when they made the listing.
"Historically, there have been at least three times when scientists have believed the bird was truly on the verge of extinction," Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, told KWES-TV. "What the data shows now is that the birds' numbers and range of habitat have continued to grow although they've slowed down some during this period of extended drought."
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