Introduction
In May 1998 the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse (PMJM) was listed as a threaten species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act (the Act). PMJM occupies shrub habitat adjacent to streams along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. The species range is thought to be confined to portions of five counties in Wyoming (Albany, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, and Platte).
In July 2002, as a result of a lawsuit filed by several private conservation groups and individuals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) proposed designating critical habitat for PMJM in Wyoming and Colorado. A final designation of critical habitat is required by June 4, 2003. The proposed critical habitat includes approximately 237.2 miles of rivers and streams and 20,054 acres of land in Wyoming (50CRF- Part 17). The proposed habitat in Wyoming spans four counties (Albany, Converse, Laramie, and Platte). Approximately 77 percent of the proposed habitat in Wyoming is on private land
The Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, College of Agriculture, University of Wyoming prepared this report at the request of the Governor’s Office of the State of Wyoming in cooperation with the Albany, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, and Platte County Commissioners. The State of Wyoming's position continues to be that convincing scientific evidence of the existence of the PMJM, as a subspecies has not been provided. As a result, the Service should put proposed actions regarding the mouse on hold until such evidence is forthcoming. However, since the Service is moving forward with the designation of critical habitat, an economic analysis of the economic impact of the PMJM on Southeastern Wyoming is necessary.
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"New distributional data and a better understanding of threats to the mouse have altered the Service's understanding of the subspecies' status in the Wyoming portion of its range. At the time of listing, the Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse was known from only a few sites in Wyoming. Since then, additional distributional data has verified that Preble's populations occur and appear secure throughout the North Platte River basin. Land use across Preble's habitat in Wyoming is dominated by agriculture, mostly haying and grazing. Continuation of these long-standing activities does not appear to pose a threat to existing Preble's populations. In addition, there is also no indication that these agricultural practices are likely to change in the foreseeable future in ways that would affect Preble's populations. A low projected human population growth rate is predicted for the four Wyoming counties (Albany, Laramie, Platte and Converse) that support Preble's populations. Consequently, few of the development related impacts occurring in Colorado's portion of the Front Range urban corridor will impact Preble's populations in Wyoming."
For the complete text of the press release, go to the USFWS's PMJM home page via the link below.
Our research project on the economic impact of PMJM is complete and our results are presented in the report (below). We used a linear programming model (GAMS) to simulate the effects on profitability of reduced grazing due to withdrawal of land from a model ranch for protection of PMJM.
Final Report (15Sep2004) 94 pages in Adobe .pdf format (2Mb)
Related to the above report is a paper and presentation by the same authors that was presented to the Trans-Atlantic Land Use Conference in Washington, D.C. 24 September, 2007. This paper approaches some of the policy implications of critical habitat designation. The removal of the Wyoming populations from threatened status would alleviate a number of issues presented in the paper.
Online PowerPoint Presentation Paper
| Small Feet, Big Tracks: The Economic Potential Economic Impact of Critical Habitat Designation on the Economy of Southeastern Wyoming | The Trans-Atlantic Land Use Conference, Washington, D.C. 24Sep07 Click here for paper. |
PMJM Links
