Builders say mouse-saving rule too costly

But their estimate on ultimate price called 'overblown'

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The government's effort to protect the Preble's meadow jumping mouse will cost the state's economy hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming decades, Colorado home builders and developers said Monday.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the mouse will be delisted from the Endangered Species Act in Wyoming but will remain listed in Colorado.

Besides being an economic burden, delisting in Wyoming, but not in Colorado, could "run afoul of the U.S. Constitution," argues lawyer Kent Holsinger.

"The next step is that the Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting comments on its new rules," said Holsinger, who represents a nonprofit group supported by developers and builders called Coloradans for Water Conservation and Development.

"We are going to comment on this case and encourage others to point out the folly of wasting such incredible resources on a common rodent," Holsinger said Monday.

In a 2003 economic impact study, the fish and wildlife agency estimated that protecting the mouse could cost local governments, landowners and others $183 million each decade, Holsinger said. And the added costs come at a time when building permit activity in the Denver area is at a 15-year low, he added.

Environmentalist Josh Pollock agreed that "it is odd that they would argue the species is threatened with extinction in one area but not protected across its entire range."

"As far as the money issue, I think that is overblown," said Pollock, conservation director of the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems.

He said the Fish and Wildlife Service said it has never stopped a Colorado development because of the mouse but has asked only that the plans be modified, "which is completely appropriate."

But that itself can be expensive, said developer Steve Schuck, who has said that protecting the mouse cost him an additional $1 million for a development in Colorado Springs.

Schuck joked last week that builders are breeding a "Preble mouse-eating cat" to take care of the rodent.

And builders in northern Colorado are privately making jokes that the Preble's mouse will be "hopping the state line" between Wyoming and Colorado in order to be safe, said Dottie Webber, executive officer of the Northern Colorado Home Builders Association.

Expensive rodent

State and federal governments are spending more on the Preble's meadow jumping mouse than they do on each of 1,135 species of wolves, whales, bighorn sheep, trout, tortoises, squirrels, snakes, birds, beetles and butterflies listed under the Endangered Species Act. Some examples of government spending on endangered species:

$624,996 Preble's meadow jumping mouse

$66,594 Blue whale

$339,545 Greenback cutthroat trout

$101,100 Snail darterSource: Golden-Based Holsinger Law Firm, Based On Government Reports

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207