[Vision2020] Maybe she will become Ed Iverson's assistant at No Saints Around.

[Andreas Schou]

Wayne --

My favorite part of this story? The fact that she altered reports on
fish populations in the Intermountain West based on recommendations
from someone she met on World of Warcraft.

-- ACS

On 5/2/07, Art Deco <deco at moscow.com> wrote:
>
> Maybe she will become Ed Iverson's assistant at No Saints Around.
>
>
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-macdonald2may02,0,2742517.story?track=ntothtml
> Interior Department official resigns
> Julie A. MacDonald is accused of overruling agency scientists about
> endangered species and leaking documents.By Julie Cart
> Times Staff Writer
>
> May 2, 2007
>
> An Interior Department official who was recently rebuked for altering
> scientific conclusions to reduce protections for endangered species and
> providing internal documents to lobbyists resigned Monday, officials said.
>
> Julie A. MacDonald, a deputy assistant secretary who oversaw the Fish and
> Wildlife Service's endangered species program, also faced
> conflict-of-interest questions in a report issued by the Interior
> Department's inspector general in March.
>
> An Interior Department spokesman confirmed MacDonald's resignation Tuesday
> but declined to comment. MacDonald could not be reached.
>
> MacDonald's departure came a week before a scheduled congressional oversight
> hearing to investigate whether Bush administration officials have ignored
> scientific findings in their decisions on endangered species.
>
> In 2004, MacDonald was criticized for overruling field biologists on the
> habitat requirements of the greater sage grouse, disputing their conclusion
> that oil and gas operations could interfere with the birds' breeding and
> nesting.
>
> The inspector general's report outlined instances where MacDonald, a civil
> engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, advocated altering
> scientific conclusions in ways that favored development and agricultural
> interests.
>
> H. Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, told investigators
> that MacDonald overrode field experts on designating habitat for the
> endangered southwestern willow flycatcher.
>
> Scientists concluded that the birds had a "nesting range" of 2.1 miles, but
> MacDonald ordered the number reduced to 1.8 miles without providing any
> scientific basis for the change.
>
> Hall, a wildlife biologist, told investigators he was in a "running battle"
> with MacDonald over the issue. Hall said MacDonald had a particular interest
> in endangered species rulings that affected California because her husband
> had a ranch in the state.
>
> California property records show that MacDonald and her husband, Charles,
> own 80 acres identified as crop land in Yolo County near Sacramento.
>
> The inspector general's report also said that MacDonald had pressured staff
> members to combine three different populations of the California tiger
> salamander into one, which in effect excluded it from the endangered species
> list.
>
> A federal judge overturned the change in 2005, saying the decision was made
> "without even a semblance of agency reasoning."
>
> The report also said MacDonald had ordered department scientists to reverse
> their conclusions on the habitat for bull trout in the Klamath River Basin.
> She insisted on a 90% reduction in habitat. The final ruling reduced the
> habitat from 296 miles to 42 miles, an 86% reduction.
>
> Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and
> former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, called MacDonald's
> activities outlined in the report appalling.
>
> "It's pretty incredible how deeply and directionally she reached, ordering
> changes with no scientific grounding," Clark said. "It was as if compliance
> with the law was secondary at best, and irrelevant at worst."
>
> The report said MacDonald improperly provided department information to
> lobbyists and private-sector interests, such as the California Farm Bureau
> and the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.
>
> "MacDonald appears to have a close personal and business relationship with a
> farm bureau lobbyist," the report said.
>
> In once instance, the report said, MacDonald sent information about a
> contentious endangered species issue to a friend she had met in an online
> role-playing game. She told investigators she took part in the Internet
> games to relieve stress created by her job.
>
> MacDonald often overruled government biologists and recommended cutting
> habitat for threatened species, saying the economic costs outweighed any
> potential benefits to the species. But she told The Times in 2005 that
> because of a miscalculation, she had wildly overstated potential costs in at
> least one case.
>
> In many instances, MacDonald's changes caused scientists to request that
> their names be removed from documents. The inspector general calculated that
> in the last six years, 75% of the endangered species reports from the Fish
> and Wildlife Service's Western offices did not have standard signoffs by
> scientific staff members.
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