With the support of EHL, there may be more peace and quiet on a Preserve on the Dana Point Headlands. This mouse survives in three small populations, each vulnerable to extirpation. It only weighs as much as three pennies.

Photo: San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

After a lengthy hearing on March 12, the California Coastal Commission responded to warnings by the conservation community and scientists that this precarious population needed more time free from human disturbance. 

Data collected by the Center for Natural Lands Management showed a 40% reduction in the area occupied by the mouse after public access was stopped during Covid years. This was in spite of aggressive vegetation management to benefit the animal. Based on this relationship and on what is known about mouse behavior, reducing visitor hours on an interim basis was recommended by state and federal wildlife agencies and Coastal Commission staff as an urgent precautionary action before this year’s peak breeding season. The Commission agreed, and final hours would be set after more detailed deliberation.

The reduction in hours is modest, from 7 days to 4 days per week, but with the trail closing before sunset, when the mice emerge from their burrows. Numerous other coastal viewing locations are in the immediate vicinity, including on the Headlands itself.

However, due to prior litigation by the City of Dana Point designed to block access reduction, a court will decide whether or not the interim hours ordered by the Commission will actually take effect. In addition, the City has vowed to mount a new legal challenge to the Commission’s action.

EHL’s defense of the mouse goes back to 2001. We participated in the City’s planning process and worked with the developer to create the preserve area. For the Coastal Commission hearing, EHL organized a letter signed by 25 conservation groups and testified, as did several other groups. We thank the Commission for balancing public access with the survival of an endangered species, and will remain engaged in saving our “charismatic microfauna.”