| Mouse has Douglas County
landowners by the tail
March 11, 2003
The Casper Star Tribune Casper, Wyoming To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@trib.com
Castle Rock, Colorado (AP) - Officials in Douglas County and three towns are trying to establish safe havens for the threatened Preble's meadow jumping mouse to make it easier to build on land where the tiny rodents live. Several delays in private and public construction projects have been blamed on the mouse since the federal government classified it as threatened in 1998. Anyone intruding on its habitat must obtain a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by proving they can protect the habitat or move the mice to an equally good home. Working with Parker, Castle Rock and Larkspur, Douglas County has spent five years and more than $500,000 to establish a regional habitat conservation plan and safe zones for the mouse. If enacted, the plan would allow landowners and developers to work with city and county officials rather than the Fish and Wildlife Service. The mice have congregated in Douglas County, mostly along Cherry and West Plum creeks. That means every time officials need to expand a water station, extend a trail or even repair a sewer line, they have to make sure they don't disturb the mouse. Developer Hank Vanderryst said he gave up a chunk of land slated for an affordable housing project and had to replant numerous shrubs because of the mouse. He estimates the work along with a lengthy environmental assessment and bureaucratic delays cost him about $2 million. He does not think the housing units will be as affordable as originally planned. ''The mouse is not a bear or an owl or a fox. It's a mouse. It's an ugly jumping mouse,'' Vanderryst said. Pete Plage, a biologist in the Colorado field office for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, said Congress designated the mouse as threatened, and his office has to enforce the regulations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to designate about 57,000 acres of critical habitat for the mouse in Colorado and Wyoming.
Copyright 2003, Casper Star-Tribune.
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