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<DIV>Maybe she will become Ed Iverson's assistant at No Saints Around.</DIV>
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<DIV><A
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-macdonald2may02,0,2742517.story?track=ntothtml">http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-macdonald2may02,0,2742517.story?track=ntothtml</A><BR>
<H1>Interior Department official resigns</H1>
<DIV class=storysubhead>Julie A. MacDonald is accused of overruling agency
scientists about endangered species and leaking documents.</DIV>By Julie
Cart<BR>Times Staff Writer<BR><BR>May 2, 2007<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>An Interior Department
spokesman confirmed MacDonald's resignation Tuesday but declined to comment.
MacDonald could not be reached.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>California property records show that MacDonald and her husband,
Charles, own 80 acres identified as crop land in Yolo County near
Sacramento.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>A federal judge overturned the change in 2005, saying the
decision was made "without even a semblance of agency reasoning."<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>"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."<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>"MacDonald appears to have a close personal and business
relationship with a farm bureau lobbyist," the report said.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.</DIV></BODY></HTML>