For those wondering where all the sweet sounds are going...
Bernie
<http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234%257E26642%257E2607594,00.html>
Wildlife rulings ignore key science, critics say
Don Thompson, Associated Press
Sunday, December 19, 2004 - SACRAMENTO - Federal officials overrode
their own scientists this fall when they decided that diverting more
water to farmers and residents of parched Southern California would
not harm fish populations in Northern California rivers.
The decision angered 19 Democratic members of Congress who won
promises of a probe into what they called flawed science similar to a
decision that led to the nation's largest fish kill on the Klamath
River two years ago.
The Klamath and California delta incidents are just two examples of a
trend in which scientists' recommendations have been significantly
altered by administrators in the federal agencies charged with
safeguarding the nation's land and water. Reports on salmon, trout
and marbled murrelets all were affected, potentially opening millions
of acres to more human intrusion, according to documents obtained by
the Associated Press.
The changes, and in some cases complete deletion, of scientific
findings could have consequences for wildlife habitat and wildlands
across the West.
"Political science," as it's called by environmental attorney Trent
Orr, is happening more often as the Bush administration changes the
use of the Endangered Species Act, drawing criticism from Democrats,
scientists, commercial fisherman and environmental groups.
But the act's original intent has bogged down in an endless round of
lawsuits between environmental and business organizations, and is now
viewed as punishment or a regulatory hammer by the affected
interests, said California Forestry Association President Dave
Bischel. Better to try a cooperative approach, he said, as has been
suggested by the administration and some organizations on opposing
sides of the question.
Federal officials said they were just following the law and routinely
amending reports as part of their normal review. Recent decisions to
scale back critical habitat designations were a lawful use of the
administration's discretion, said U.S. Interior Department spokesman
Hugh Vickery.
Biologists at National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries
first found that diverting more water to Southern California would
likely "jeopardize the continued existence" of Central Valley spring
Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead.
Administrators, however, overruled the findings and issued a revised
analysis in October that didn't include possible extinction for the
fish.
The ruling lets the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state
Department of Water Resources proceed with long-term water contracts
with rural irrigation districts and urban water districts. It also
furthers plans to pump more water through the fragile Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta to thirsty Southern California.
Members of Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,
D-San Francisco, claimed "the Bureau of Reclamation, in its haste to
finalize water contracts in California, has improperly undermined the
required NOAA Fisheries environmental process." She and others cited
the Klamath fish kill as a cautionary precedent. Inspectors general
of the Commerce and Interior departments, which oversee the agencies,
promised to investigate.
The changes were "just typical project management oversight and
supervision," said NOAA Fisheries' Assistant Regional Administrator
Jim Lecky. He denied any improper outside influence prompted the
change.
Reclamation spokesman Jeffrey McCracken said the agency routinely
consulted with NOAA Fisheries as it amended the scientific report.
"There were a lot of factual inaccuracies that we brought to their
attention," he said.
It's not the first time Lecky has been accused of bowing to political
pressure and dumping scientists' findings. In 2002, NOAA Fisheries
biologist Michael Kelly said his warnings that low water in the
Klamath River could harm salmon were illegally altered. Later that
year, his predictions came true when low water in the Klamath led to
the nation's largest fish kill of as many as 77,000 salmon.
Kelly quit after a second dispute with Lecky, but his testimony
helped influence a federal court ruling overturning the agency's
long-term water flow plan for the Klamath.
The Delta and Klamath decisions are not isolated occurrences:
- Fifty-nine pages listing the potential economic benefits of keeping
the critical habitat designation for the threatened bull trout were
removed from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report. The service's
decision affected the trout in 90 percent of the Columbia and Klamath
river basins, which covers areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
Montana.
"The benefits section had been completely excised," said Glen Spain,
Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations.
"It just lists all the costs of obliterating (logging) roads and some
restrictions on logging," added Michael Garrity, executive director
of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.
The service says it solicited comments from the American Forestry and
Paper Association and the National Mining Association.
"They got their comments in, but they didn't ask the general public,"
Garrity said.
- The economic benefits were left out of NOAA Fisheries' decision
last month to remove the critical habitat designation for salmon and
steelhead trout in as much as 90 percent of the previous designation
in California and as much as 80 percent in the Pacific Northwest.
"Gosh, we may as well take all California, 100 million acres, and
define it as critical habitat" by the time the needs of one species
or another overlap, said the California Forestry Association's
Bischel in supporting the decision.
- Last spring, six government-appointed scientists took the unusual
step of publishing their findings in the journal Science after their
recommendations were rejected in a pending NOAA Fisheries decision.
The scientists said their warnings against counting hatchery-raised
salmon with wild salmon to determine whether the species should enjoy
continued protection were rejected because they crossed the line from
science into policy-making.
- In September, the Fish and Wildlife Service overruled a
recommendation by its own scientists and its regional office in
deciding that declining populations of marbled murrelets in
Washington, Oregon and California should not be considered for
protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and
Alaska.
The ruling could spur removal of the robin-sized sea bird from the
threatened species list, and ultimately allow more logging in old
growth forests.
That decision came from the office of Assistant Interior Secretary
Craig Manson, the Bush administration's point man on the Endangered
Species Act and an outspoken critic of the law.
--
Wild Sanctuary, Inc.
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, California 95442-0536
Tel: (707) 996-6677
Fax: (707) 996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
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