tim chandler wrote:
I used to live in Monument, CO, less than 100 yards from Monument
Creek, one
of the areas in which this mouse lives. Development is a fact of
life along
the Front Range - but waterways are protected from development and
monitored
for quality at least as much as anywhere else, given the scarcity of
water
and the popularity everywhere in Colorado of "greenways" and parks.

Not at all, I grew up in Jefferson County in the 50's and 60's! All
the streams and wetlands near where I grew up are gone or destoryed!
The place that use to have ground nesting birds and great fields full
of wildlife plus a good stream are all gone! They even built a
concrete ditch for the stream and built right over it! You go to
Jefferson County and El Paso County you will see streams that have rip
rock along the sides! The stream bed is just a concrete brainage dith
= no more craw Daddin; there! It keeps the water moving fast and
ensures that downstream communities get a lot of water real fast! You
go to Douglas County and they have built massively near streams!
Douglas county has restored some areas and they look grat; but with the
mouse not a mouse of concern anymore, all that will go away! And the
riparian water ways are a major source of critical habitat and
migration route for wildlife! I think they will soon like like the
drainage ditches Denver calls Cherry Creek and the South Platte when
they flow through Denver!


IMO
there is no danger of eliminating this mouse, certainly not in the
Monument
area - they'd have to pave over the whole place to do that,


seen it done and the rip rock method will eliminate wildlife near any
drainage ditch bank!

and although
there's too much development there now for my taste, there are still
many,
many homes on one acre or more that are not going to disappear. And
regulations and community standards and desires still operate
democratically
at least in most places, so that truly outrageous development
programs tend
to get nipped, if not always in the bud. Compared to places back
East, it's
still wide open out there with usually too much and too dense
vegetation
that presents a fire hazard every year.

Ohh sound like you are trying to draw in the property rights fanatics -
I imagine Douglas Bruce will be on that issues some day!


There has to be a balance. But for too many years the enviro
"Chicken
Littles" have been getting away with murder in stopping development
because
it doesn't fit their "I've got mine, close the gates NOW"

I live in Denver Central = as such I don't have mine! You look at
someone building out in the boonies and they are most liekly to be to
the right and just want theirs!


attitude and in
using court decrees to thwart laws and stop things they don't like,

If you read the link I provided, the Preble's meadown jumping mouse has
not stopped on development!


circumventing the will of the people. The mice are important but
development can and should be sanely balanced - not insanely in favor
of the
enviros as previously.

Like the ever-popular bumper sticker says, "Don't Californicate
Colorado!"

Tim C.


Been to you area BUB - see development directly only to development -
and not the flood gates will open!

Wow = Don't Californicate Colorado!" = uyou think there is some reason
the people from Calif are moving out!! Yep development! You take such
as the Mall in Englewood - Cindereally city was it not! They developed
it to the point that traffic and congestion devalued the area and
people moved out! You cant stop Californicate Colorado!"




wrote in message
ups.com...

Derek Broughton wrote:
Benign Vanilla wrote:

Some of you may remember my wife's attempt at convincing me I
was
losing
my mind, when I found a jumping kangaroo like mouse in the
house a
few
months back.

I may be insane, but Yahoo! is apparently in on it...

Jumping Mouse Loses Federal Protection

WASHINGTON - The Preble's meadow jumping mouse, once seen as a
costly
impediment to development, is now viewed by the government as a
critter
that never really existed - and is no longer in need of federal
protection
under the Endangered Species Act.

Sorry, but the point of that whole piece is that it never _did_
exist
(though, to be fair, the Preble's jumping mouse doesn't exist
only
because
it's actually just a different kind of jumping mouse :-) )
--
derek

You want a good article on the mouse situation:
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2004-04-08/cover.html