Mighty Mouse Takes Down Housing Development
I found this news story from the Billings Gazette both interesting and pathetic. The Preble's meadow jumping mouse which has been on the endangered species list until recently ruined the plans of a Housing Developer because he had to preserve much of his purchased land to protect the habitat of this mouse. Apparently the mouse is now off the list because it has been determined that the mouse is not part of a distinct subspecies. The damage to the development has already been done and all that can be placed where what used to be the protected habitat is a park. As I was reading this I had to ask myself, is a certain kind of mouse all that important that it should be so costly for housing developers and others who want to use the land? It seems rather ridiculous that a tiny feild mouse could hold so much power. I understand that protection of endangered species is important but in situations like this I think it goes too far. It's just a mouse! I have a whole community of them living in my basement! How are housing developments going to hurt a mouse?
posted by Anonymous @ 9:48 AM
2 Comments:
This reminds me of something I heard while living in Merced, California. The city wished to build a branch of the University of California in the area. Someone claimed to find an endangered species of shrimp in a puddle in the middle of the planned construction area, and all building and development was completely halted.
After the first sighting, nobody could find any more of the shrimp on the property, but the project remained stalled for an extended period of time before eventually proceeding as planned.
A few theories I heard about the situation:Someone who didn't want a college next to their house made up the sighting of the shrimp.
Someone who supported the project heard about the shrimp sighting and destroyed the shrimp habitat before anyone could get to it.
The person who thought he or she found endangered shrimp was mistaken.
The shrimp are still there somewhere, hiding from the people who seek them out. They're meeting with Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Alien Communists from the U.N. who are trying to destroy our American way of life. The shrimp also perform cattle mutilations at night. Hurry and put on your tin-foil hat to keep them from controlling your mind!
I think when declaring an endanged species, we have to look at the eco-system and where they fit in. There are no bears in the desert, so if there was a bear there, would be be endangered? I know that is an extreme, but honestly there are people who study eco-systems, and I would think that by now, it would be realitively easy to judge based on that set of rules. Hopefully someday we will be able to look at the big picture of the environment and help everything to move along.
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