permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2034549420070720
U.S. could reverse suspect endangered species rulings
Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:22PM EDT
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accused of letting a political appointee meddle in the 
science of endangered species, said on Friday it could reverse eight decisions if it finds they were inappropriately 
influenced by political concerns.

The decisions under review affected species as varied as the Hawaiian picture-wing fly and the white-tailed prairie dog. 
All involved input from Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary who resigned in May after government 
scientists complained of political interference.

Dale Hall, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said hundreds of endangered species decisions from MacDonald's 
five-year tenure were reviewed after her resignation, and eight were singled out for further evaluation and possible 
reversal.

"These are important because it's a blemish, I believe, on the scientific integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and 
the Department of the Interior, so we're going to place a pretty high priority on trying to get these done," Hall said 
in a telephone briefing.

Without being definitive, Hall indicated reversals were likely: "We wouldn't be doing them (the re-evaluations) if we 
didn't at least suspect that the decision will be different."

The selection of which decisions to review was made by the agency's regional directors, whose original judgments were 
changed by MacDonald, Hall said.

Hall gave no timetable for the re-evaluations, but said three had already begun in response to court challenges against 
them. The other five will not begin until the start of the federal fiscal year in October.

INTERFERING WITH SCIENCE

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which has reported extensively on political interference with science in the United 
States, gave the announcement a qualified endorsement.

"While we welcome the revisiting of decisions where political interference has been documented, the list of species 
under consideration is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive," the group's Francesca Grifo said in a statement.

"If the agency truly wants to get to the bottom of this, then asking the regional directors to identify the problems is 
not enough. Any agency scientist should have been able to provide input."

A report earlier this year by the Interior Department's inspector general gave numerous examples of political appointees 
in the Bush administration interfering with science at the Fish and Wildlife Service, but focused on MacDonald.

The report said she was heavily involved in editing scientists' reports to favor business interests and had showed 
internal documents to lobbyists. It noted she was trained as a civil engineer with no formal education in the natural 
sciences, such as biology.

The decisions under new review involve the following species: the white-tailed prairie dog, Preble's meadow jumping 
mouse (two decisions), the Hawaiian picture-wing fly, the Arroyo toad, the Southwestern willow flycatcher, the 
California red-legged frog and the Canada lynx.