CHEYENNE, Wyo.—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service might be preparing to backtrack on a decision more than two years ago not to protect an elusive mouse species in Wyoming, a spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday.
The possibility was heard during a telephone conversation between Gov. Dave Freudenthal and Tom Strickland, the assistant Interior Department secretary who oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, Freudenthal spokeswoman Leigh Anne Manlove said.
Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service officials didn’t immediately return messages Thursday seeking comment.
Since 2008, the Preble’s mouse has been protected as a threatened species in Colorado but not Wyoming. Ranchers and others in both states have closely followed the status of the mouse amid concerns that regulations could impede development.
Environmentalists oppose listing the species as threatened in one state but not in another, saying the mouse and its habitat don’t conform to state lines. They contested the decision in a lawsuit filed last year.
The lawsuit is pending in federal court in Colorado.
In a follow-up letter to Strickland on Thursday, Freudenthal said his office contends as well that the Fish and Wildlife Service should not follow state lines when it draws boundaries for the Preble’s mouse under the Endangered Species Act.
“We continue to believe that splitting the listing status of Preble’s populations on political boundaries makes no sort of biological sense,” the governor wrote.
The five environmental groups suing over the Preble’s decision filed a brief Tuesday urging the judge in the case to follow the reasoning of a Montana judge who ruled in August that protections for wolves could not be divided along state lines.
It “seems inevitable” that Fish and Wildlife will be required to revisit the Preble’s mouse decision, Freudenthal wrote to Strickland.
