December 20, 2008

• Why I am a member of and contributor to UCS

  Lost among last week's headlines of shoe-throwers and disgraced Illinois politicians was this story reminding me that my modest donations to the UCS are being well spent:

  Report: Endangered species decisions tainted

  WASHINGTON – A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds, concluding she exerted improper political interference on many more rulings than previously thought.

  Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department's morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report out Monday.

  The Interior Department last year reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found that MacDonald had applied political pressure in those cases. The new report looked at nearly two dozen other endangered species decisions not examined in the earlier report. It found MacDonald directly interfered with at least 13 decisions and indirectly affected at least two more.

  MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, resigned in May 2007. Department employees reported that they used her name as a verb — encountering political interference from senior managers was called "getting MacDonalded."

  Devaney said "MacDonald's zeal to advance her agenda has caused considerable harm to the integrity of the ESA program and to the morale and reputation" of the Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as potential harm to animals under the Endangered Species Act.

  She resigned weeks after the report by Devaney last year found that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups. That report also said MacDonald censored science and mistreated staff.

  The new investigation reaffirmed those findings and said MacDonald's influence was even more far-reaching. It also faulted her boss, former Assistant Secretary Craig Manson, as well as several other high-ranking Interior officials, including Randal Bowman, a special assistant to Manson, and Thomas Graf, a department lawyer. (emphasis mine)

  In 2006, the UCS filed allegations that McDonald had "personally reversed scientific findings, changed scientific conclusions to prevent endangered species from receiving protection, removed relevant information from a scientific document, and ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt her edits."  The D.o.I.  Inspector General then undertook an investigation into said allegations.  Finding indicated that MacDonald had manipulated and undermined scientific findings in order to favor the Bush administration's policy goals and assist land developers.  MacDonald's resignation on May 1, 2007 came one week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on the Inspector General's findings.  Below is a statement by Francesca Grifo, director of the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS):

  "This report clarifies something we have suspected for a long time: Pervasive political interference in science has significantly hampered the ability of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to carry out its mission to protect our nation's natural heritage. This investigation gives us a bigger picture of Julie MacDonald's politically influenced decisions and policies, but more needs to be done to completely uncover the extent of the damage she has done. As a result of these tainted decisions, developers are cutting trees, filling streams, and bulldozing habitat that threatened and endangered species rely on for their recovery. The Interior Department must reevaluate these flawed decisions as quickly as possible so that the best available science is used to protect our nation's biodiversity.

  What can be said about the cronyism of this administration that hasn't already been said and demonstrated numerous times already?  I'm just glad it's almost over - I'm tired of "getting MacDonalded".

  • 4:37 pm
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