An environmental group plans to make its case in court that the Interior Department is not protecting vulnerable species from the effects of cattle grazing in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains.
The Center for Biological Diversity on Monday sued Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico to protect New Mexico meadow jumping mice and several other threatened flora and fauna. They say the animals’ habitat, often grazed by cattle, becomes too depleted to support the mice and other species.
“It’s infuriating that we have to go back to court to force federal officials to do their jobs and protect animals from extinction,” said Robin Silver, co-founder of the center, in a statement. The group said its new lawsuit is its third in five years on this issue.
The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse was listed as endangered in 2014 and can be found near running water in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The mice hibernate for nine month and have a narrow window in summer to reproduce and gain enough weight to survive.
