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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Politically Altered Endangered Species Decisions Will Be Revised

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will take a second look at seven endangered species decisions made by a former senior official, Julie MacDonald. MacDonald resigned her post in April after the Department of the Interior, of which FWS is a part, discovered she had been allowing political considerations to taint species protection decisions.

After outcry from conservationists, scientific integrity advocates and the House Natural Resources Committee, FWS decided to review eight decisions in which MacDonald had been involved. FWS will now revise seven of the policy decisions after finding only one of the cases was based on "scientifically supportable" evidence.

FWS should be commended for choosing to review and revise the decisions; but the book may not be closed on MacDonald's interference. Seven of eight is a pretty big proportion and begs the question: How many other decisions did MacDonald's political ideology affect?

The Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, Nick Rahall (D-WV), expressed that concern yesterday in a statement:

This announcement is the latest illustration of the depth of incompetence at the highest levels of management within the Interior Department and breadth of this Administration's penchant for torpedoing science. Today we hear that seven out of eight decisions she made need to be scrapped, causing us once again to question the integrity of the entire program under her watch.