The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide by Nov. 12 whether to list the Gunnison sage grouse as an endangered species. (Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file)
Re: “Gunnison seeks to protect grouse, residents from endangerment listing,” Sept. 16 news story.
Although I can somewhat sympathize with the residents of southern Colorado with regards to having to alter their lives for the Gunnison sage grouse, what your article failed to focus on is how the Gunnison sage grouse has had to alter its life, too.
Development and invasion of the species’ habitat has brought it to the point of extinction, so the point of having it listed as endangered would be to protect it from us. Once an animal is gone, it can never be brought back, and that is the whole purpose of the Endangered Species Act: to give a threatened or endangered species a chance at survival.
The residents of Gunnison County, and all residents of Southern Colorado, will have options available for their habitat regardless of this outcome, but the Gunnison sage grouse has only one option available to it: to just survive.
Alex Marks, Evergreen
This letter was published in the Sept. 20 edition.
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