permaculture

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

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/324614_endangered21.html
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Last updated 2:28 p.m. PT
Decisions on species to be reviewed
Methods of Interior official who resigned in question

P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

In the wake of the resignation of a Bush administration official who was 
rebuked for meddling in scientists' calls about
protecting endangered species, federal officials on Friday announced plans to 
re-examine eight decisions influenced by
the disgraced official.

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But three Pacific Northwest species that sparked controversy -- the spotted 
owl, the bull trout and a seabird called a
marbled murrelet -- won't be included in the review. Environmentalists labeled the 
administration's move a "token effort
designed for damage control."

Friday's announcement by Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service, comes less than three months after
the resignation of Julie MacDonald, an Interior Department official in charge 
of the wildlife service. She had been
chastised by the agency's inspector general for bullying agency scientists 
and leaking information to industry groups.

Hall said officials ordered the re-examination of eight decisions about imperiled 
species because "we want to make sure
that the science is true."

The agency said the review would not cover numerous other decisions MacDonald 
influenced because officials "determined
that her involvement in the outcome of those decisions did not affect the 
species' status. Many other decisions
influenced by MacDonald involved application of law and policy that were within 
her authority to make."

But Kristen Boyles, a Seattle lawyer with the Earthjustice law firm who 
frequently sues on behalf of threatened species,
argued that the review should be much broader.

"If Ms. MacDonald and others in D.C. made illegal decisions, I don't care if 
you call them policy, science or economic
decisions, they should be reviewed if those decisions are invalid," Boyles 
said.

The most recent controversy in the Northwest involved a Washington, 
D.C.-based team of Bush administration officials,
including MacDonald, who overruled a panel of Northwest-based experts and 
reduced by one-fifth the amount of acreage
protected as "critical habitat" for the spotted owl.

"People's bells should go off when the folks in an agency's regional office 
are overruled by political appointees in
D.C.," Boyles said. "I don't believe the region is always right, but I 
believe they are paying attention to the science
because they are the scientists."

MacDonald is a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences.

Decisions to reduce federal protection for the Rocky Mountain jumping mouse, a Western 
bird known as the "mosquito king"
and other threatened creatures will be reconsidered after alleged improper 
meddling by MacDonald.

MacDonald's resignation from the post of deputy assistant secretary 
overseeing Fish and Wildlife and the National Park
Service was announced in May. Among the eight decisions to be reviewed, two 
involve the Preble's meadow jumping mouse.
One was a 2005 proposal to remove the 9-inch mouse, named for its ability to 
leap twice its length and pivot midair,
from the government's endangered species list. The second was a 2003 decision 
about the amount of acreage that should be
protected to help the mouse recover.

Other species covered by Hall's order are the Southwestern willow flycatcher, 
white-tailed prairie dog, arroyo toad,
California red-legged frog, Canada lynx and 12 species of Hawaiian 
picture-wing flies.

Hall said he ordered the reviews based on the recommendations of his regional 
directors, whom he had asked to study
MacDonald's decisions.

"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 those 
done," he said.

"We wouldn't be doing them if we didn't at least suspect that the decision 
will be different. But I don't want to
predetermine outcome."

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, 
praised the Interior Department for
"stepping up to the plate to begin addressing the 'politics trumps science' ploy 
endemic throughout this administration."

His committee held a hearing on MacDonald's actions shortly after her 
resignation was announced.

"What we have learned to date raises concerns about political tinkering with 
science that has affected perhaps 100
endangered species-related decisions -- and goodness knows what else -- that 
deserve further scrutiny," Rahall said Friday.

Environmentalists noted that Hall was agreeing to review only about a third 
of the cases in which misconduct by
MacDonald was alleged.

"While we welcome the revisiting of decisions where political interference 
has been documented, the list of species
under consideration is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive," said Francesca 
Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned
Scientists' integrity program.

"The real culprit here is not a renegade political appointee," Grifo said. 
"The real culprit is a process where
decisions are made behind closed doors."
P-I Reporter Robert McClure and Associated Press Reporter John Heilprin 
contributed to this report.