Feds to review status of Preble's meadow jumping mouse

A tiny Rocky mountain region rodent's status as a species protected by the Endangered Species Act will be reviewed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, raising hopes among developers that a barrier to land use will be removed.

In a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, the agency said it would examiner whether Zapus 
hudsonius preblei would continue to be considered threatened.

FWS is re-visiting the question whether to strip the species of protection on the basis of two de-listing petitions filed nine years ago.

The petitions to remove the mouse from the list of federally protected species were filed in 2003 by the state of Wyoming and an organization known as Coloradans for Water Conservation and Development.

Environmentalists are likely to object to any attempt to remove any or all of the species' populations from beneath the federal shield.

"There is no new information to support de-listing in Wyoming," Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an email message.

CBD is the organization that initially requested listing of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse in 1994.

Preble's meadow jumping mice are endemic from southeastern Wyoming south through Colorado's Front Range area. According to information posted on a FWS website, the animal depends on riparian corridors and densely-packed and undisturbed nearby grasslands for habitat. A nocturnal animal, the mouse does not range more than a hundred yards from the perimeter of a stream floodplain.

The Preble's meadow jumping mouse was originally added to the list of threatened and endangered species in May 1998.

The agency has previously attempted to eliminate the Preble's meadow jumping mouse from the list of endangered and threatened speices. In July 2008 FWS de-listed the mouse in Wyoming. A federal judge voided that decision in July 2011 and that animal was put back on the roster of safeguarded species the next month.

FWS will combine a periodic review of the species' status mandated by the same court order with its process of deciding again whether the 2003 de-listing petitions are meritorious.

Image courtesy Colorado Natural Heritage Program (a project of Colorado State University).

Feds Say Mouse Still Threatened in Colorado

After months of silence, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced Nov. 1 that it intends to remove the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) from the threatened species list in the Wyoming part of its range but maintain it on the threatened species list in the Colorado portion of its range.

The jumping mouse, which is found in the foothills of Wyoming and south along the Front Range to El Paso county, Colorado, inhabits mature plains riparian-area vegetation in relatively undisturbed grassland areas near a water source. Human presence in the riparian areas of Colorado's sprawling Front Range has severely curtailed the mouse's habitat.

The mouse, which reaches a maximum length of about 7 to 10 inches and is nocturnal, can jump about three feet in order to evade predators.

The mouse was first listed by FWS as threatened throughout its entire range on May 13, 1998. Critical habitat was designated on June 23, 2003.

In December 2003 a Colorado group of development advocates and the Governor of Wyoming petitioned FWS to de-list the Preble's meadow jumping mouse. They argued that the mouse did not constitute a subspecies eligible for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

FWS found that the petitions presented information substantial enough to indicate that de-listing might be warranted on Mar. 31, 2004. Nearly one year later, the agency proposed to de-list the mouse.

In reaching that preliminary conclusion, FWS relied heavily on research conducted by Dr. Rob Roy Ramey, formerly of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and colleagues, which suggested that the Preble’s mouse should be considered the same subspecies as the Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius campestris).

Later research, especially a report commissioned by FWS from the U.S. Geological Survey in 2006, concluded that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is, in fact, a distinct subspecies.

FWS published its proposed revision of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse listing on Nov. 7, 2007.

Hearings on the Fish & Wildlife Service's proposal will be conducted Dec. 10 at the agency's Rocky Mountain Region office, 134 Union Blvd., Lakewood, CO, and Dec. 12 at the First State Bank conference center, 1405 16th St., Wheatland, WY.

In addition, FWS is accepting written comments on its proposal to revise the listing of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse until Jan. 14, 2008. Comments may be mailed to Field Supervisor, Colorado Field Office, Ecological Services, P.O. Box 25486, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225 or e-mailed to FW6_PMJM@fws.gov.