Groups want cows corralled to protect jumping mouse habitat

Groups want cows corralled to protect jumping mouse habitat

Associated Press
By Susan Montoya Bryan

Environmentalists have accused U.S. land managers of failing to keep livestock and wild horses out of streams and other wetlands in Arizona's White Mountains, resulting in damage to habitat required by a rare mouse species found only in the Southwest.  The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson said the U.S. Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act and damaging the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse's habitat by failing to maintain fences, round up feral animals and enforce grazing regulations on forest land in southeastern Arizona. “We entrust the care and protection of these publicly owned treasures to the Forest Service, but it’s completely abdicated its responsibility. And the adorable jumping mouse is being pushed closer to extinction,” said Robin Silver, a cofounder of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that is suing.