By
Why did the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service waste over 100
million taxpayer dollars to save the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from
extinction when the little critters are alive and well from Colorado to
Alaska?
The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law
firm based in California, has asked FWS that question by filing a
delisting petition to remove the mouse from the "threatened" list of the
Endangered Species Act. New scientific findings confirmed that the
mouse, far from being "threatened," is not meaningfully different from
other populations of jumping mice with healthy populations in a huge
swath of Western North America.
...The previous mouse studies focused narrowly on populations in the
Eastern Front Range regions of Colorado and Wyoming. More recent studies
have moved beyond that limited territory with new biogeographical
techniques, more sophisticated genetic analyses and dramatically wider
sampling. In 2013 the peer reviewed journal Molecular Ecology published a
comprehensive analysis of North American jumping mouse populations
conducted by biologists Jason L. Malaney and Joseph A. Cook. They
concluded that the Preble's mouse is "part of a single lineage that is
ecologically indistinct and extends to the far north."
One would think the USFWS would recognize, maybe even welcome this new data and take the appropriate action to delist. Apparently that has not been the case. Arnold writes:
Will the Trump Fish and Wildlife Service heed the Pacific Legal
Foundation petition and remove this spurious listing? Petitioner Dr. Rob
Roy Ramey is the most qualified to answer that. He's the wildlife
scientist who first challenged the Preble's jumping mouse as a
subspecies. He suffered Inquisition-like intimidation by bureaucrats
seeking to silence him and was subsequently forced out of his job. Now
that his work is vindicated, he is looking forward to settling what he
calls "unfinished business."
Ramey told me, "The Fish &Wildlife Service has consistently
demonstrated an inability to reverse listing decisions that they are
deeply vested in, even when the data have consistently proven them
wrong."
But how can that be?
Ramey said, "The FWS modus operandi on contested ESA listings
typically involves three key elements: obfuscation, intimidation, and
ignoring contrary evidence. And then, if it looks like they are going to
lose badly, they will simply move the goalposts and call for more
research. The answer is not to give the Fish and Wildlife Service more
money."
Will the Trump administration allow the USFWS to perform this deny-delay dance? Will Congress follow through by utilizing the appropriations process? We'll be watching to see what kind of dancing partner Zinke and the Republican majority in Congress prove to be and thereby determine if they be Mice or Men on this issue.
Ron Arnold is executive vice president of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
1 comment:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the oicture that is included in this blog entry is that of a pika, rather than a jumping mouse.
Post a Comment