Reversal of Endangered Species Rulings

Source: Associated Press

Nov 27, 3:04 PM EST
Reversal of Endangered Species Rulings

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found the actions were tainted by political pressure from a former senior Interior Department official.

In a letter to Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., the agency acknowledged that the actions had been "inappropriately influenced" and that "revising the seven identified decisions is supported by scientific evidence and the proper legal standards." The reversal affects the protection for species including the white-tailed prairie dog, the Preble's meadow jumping mouse and the Canada lynx.

The rulings came under scrutiny last spring after an Interior Department inspector general concluded that agency scientists were being pressured to alter their findings on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, then a deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service.

MacDonald resigned her position last May.

Rahall in a statement said that MacDonald, who was a civil engineer, "should never have been allowed near the endangered species program." He called MacDonald's involvement in species protection cases over her three-year tenure as an example of "this administration's penchant for torpedoing science."



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ENDANGERED_SPECIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-11-27-15-04-38

what a stupid fucking country this truly is.

I wish they would do more than just look at the damage done to the endangered species programs over at the Bureau of Land Management, but it is a great first start.

Yay!

:toast:

to wipe these critters off the face of the planet before his crony got exposed.

Or is official malfeasance not a crime? Oh so it probably isn't a crime. However Julie was most likely acting on direction from the executive office, from, for example, the Secretary of the Interior or one of his direct reports, and that would be an impeachable offense. Oh never mind. They don't care.

work for exxon/mobile or Halliburton or one of the other despicable enterprises of the evil empire. What should happen is she should be vigorously horsewhipped in the village square and then have salt rubbed into her wounds.

Bush Appointee Said to Reject Advice on Endangered Species

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 30, 2006; Page A03

A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has rejected staff scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act at least six times in the past three years, documents show.

In addition, staff complaints that their scientific findings were frequently overruled or disparaged at the behest of landowners or industry have led the agency's inspector general to look into the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions on protecting endangered species.
(snip)

Hundreds of pages of records, obtained by environmental groups through the Freedom of Information Act, chronicle the long-running battle between MacDonald and Fish and Wildlife Service employees over decisions whether to safeguard plants and animals from oil and gas drilling, power lines, and real estate development, spiced by her mocking comments on their work and their frequently expressed resentment.

Two advocacy groups, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Center for Biological Diversity, provided the documents to The Washington Post. Francesca Grifo, who directs the union's scientific integrity program, said MacDonald's actions are "not business as usual but a systemic problem of tampering with science that is putting our environment at risk."

In a few instances, federal judges have overturned decisions that MacDonald had influenced. After she declared that the endangered Santa Barbara and Sonoma salamanders were no longer "distinct populations" entitled to protection, William Alsup, a judge on the U.S. District Court for Northern California, ruled that MacDonald had arbitrarily instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to downgrade the two species even though an agency scientist concluded that "genetics state otherwise."
(snip)

In several instances, MacDonald wrote sarcastic comments in the margins of the documents, questioning why scientists were portraying a species' condition as so bleak. When scientists raised the possibility that a proposed road might degrade the greater sage grouse's habitat, which is scattered through 11 Western states, MacDonald wrote: "Has nothing to do with sage grouse. This belongs in a treatise on 'Why roads are bad'?"
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900776.html?nav=emailpage

just keeps coming to the surface doesn't it?

You know of course that we are going to be on the endangered species list pretty soon don't you?

The governments of Wyoming and Idaho will proceed with plans to kill all of the wolves that they can kill outside of the national parks.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.