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Feds Make Huge Cut in Tiny Rodent's Protected Habitat
10/23/2008 Center for Biological Diversity news
The Bush administration one-upped itself in the bad habitat-protection-move department last Friday when it reduced protected habitat for the San Bernardino kangaroo rat by even more than it originally proposed to do. Eliminating an astonishing 76 percent of land once set aside for the kangaroo rat's survival and recovery, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shrunk the species' federally protected habitat from more than 33,000 acres to a mere 7,779 -- thousands less than the reduction just proposed in April (which was bad enough). And while the San Bernardino kangaroo rat may be small, it needs habitat protection in a big way: Thanks to the triple threat of dams, mining, and sprawl, the rat is now left with just 5 percent of its historic habitat -- much of which has recently been targeted by big-box warehouse development. A 1999 lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and Christians Caring for Creation was behind the endangered rodent's original protected habitat designation. We've also helped save the kangaroo rat's home from specific threats posed by dams and development.
Read more in the Press-Enterprise. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2008/press-enterprise-10-17-2008.html
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