Property owners who are frustrated by the federal restrictions
associated with the threatened Preble’s meadow jumping mouse
recently saw Douglas County’s early plan to help them out. Comments
on the proposed plan are due June 1 to the county.
Douglas County is halfway through a three-year federal process
to get a habitat conservation plan.
“What we’re doing is trying to balance regular uses of the
property with the protection of the mouse habitat,” said Kristin
French, county public information officer. “This is not a done
deal. We need comments from Douglas County property
owners.”
The plan would allow mouse habitat to host some activities where
none is allowed now. Such activities include agricultural uses and
the development of storm drains, parks, trails, open space,
utilities, roads and bridges. The original Endangered Species Act
does not allow any of those activities.
To get the countywide permit for such activities, the county
first had to survey the creekbeds where the mouse lives or could
live. That survey resulted in a series of Riparian Conservation
Zone maps, which were presented to the public Monday.
On each map, two black lines roughly parallel rivers and creeks
throughout the county. Within the black lines are the streams and
mouse habitat. The eventual habitat conservation plan, if granted
by the federal government, would allow the destruction of mouse
habitat. This fall, the county will submit its plan to the federal
government.
Property owners have until June 1 to comment on the
maps.
The mouse was listed federally as a threatened species (a step
down from endangered) in 1998. As a result, killing the mouse or
its habitat is illegal under the Endangered Species Act.