In the late innings of the Biden administration, with the Trump administration eager to take the field and shake up the rules, you’ll need a scorecard to track last-minute decisions affecting some of Colorado’s most challenged wildlife species.
Here’s the summary box score in this month’s Endangered Species Act contests:
- Rio Grande cutthroat trout, wearing the home red-belly uniforms: not protected
- Monarch butterfly, sporting the popular black-on-orange unis: protected
- Pinyon jay, wearing Dodger-blue caps and road grays: protection decision goes to extra innings
- Greater sage-grouse, as always donning the inflated yellow breast patches at climactic moments: also in extra time
- Grizzlies, wearing any uniform they want: offense and defense are deadlocked, new ownership could change everything
Player and spectator reaction in Colorado is decidedly mixed after a week of close contests in wildlife.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are ecstatic that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final decision not to list the Rio Grande cutthroat as threatened or endangered. They say it validates years of hard work restoring hundreds of miles of the fish’s native habitat, from dozens of cooperating agencies and nonprofits.
To read the entire story, visit The Colorado Sun.
