ROARING OVER A MOUSE

The supporters of coastal development are once again griping about the stupidity of stopping human development in coastal Alabama to protect a mouse. Last week the GRN joined with the Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Integrity to challenge an action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that could push the Alabama beach mouse one step closer to extinction.

The Alabama beach mouse suffers from living on some extremely popular and expensive beachfront real estate. In 1985, the FWS notice listing the mice as an endangered species found that “most suitable habitat has been lost because of residential and commercial development, recreational activity, beach erosion, and vegetational succession." Nonetheless, over the last 20 years, rapid development of Alabama’s beaches has continued. The threat to the beach mouse from human destruction of the coastal sand dune ecosystem for commercial and residential development is increasing. Added to the development pressure was the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms on the remaining, fragmented habitat. In short, if something is not done to protect the habitat needed by this species they may soon disappear from the earth.

Why should we care?

The Alabama beach mouse is not merely a cute rodent that inhabits the beach. It is an important part of the ecosystem. The mouse’s main diet is sea oats. The oats and grasses that beach mice scatter help to stabilize sand dunes and keep them from blowing away.

In the wake of Hurricane Ivan, the Mobile Register noted that set back requirements obtained by the environmental community to protect the Alabama beach mouse habitat actually saved the Martinque Condominiums from the devastation suffered by many beach front developments. The price to the Alabama beach mouse, however, was loss of approximately 90 of its habitat.

When the winds of Hurricane Katrina hit the area, the frontal dunes protected for the beach mouse once again decrease the power of the storm, but again at a cost to beach mouse habitat.

It is clear that the Alabama beach mouse and its habitat don’t merely serve an important purpose in the ecosystem, they serve as important protection for human development. Will we never learn? By protecting them we protect ourselves. Protection of this species and its habitat should be heralded, not reviled.

Cyn Sarthou is the GRN Executive Director