Pursuing sound science

Friday, Dec. 19, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

We commented in May 2007 on the resignation of Julie MacDonald, the former deputy assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks who had been accused of political interference with Fish and Wildlife Service biologists in Endangered Species Act rulings. A broader report released Monday to Congress by Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney backed that by finding MacDonald had directly interfered with 13 of the 20 cases his office studied involving threatened or endangered species.

MacDonald’s involvement benefited commercial activity and weakened the protections afforded many of those species in the five years leading up to her resignation. Fish and Wildlife has increased protection for species in seven cases for which it had been found she exerted political influence in an effort to deny that protection.

“MacDonald’s zeal to advance her agenda has caused considerable harm to the integrity of the ESA program,” Devaney wrote. He concluded MacDonald also damaged the “morale and reputation” at Fish and Wildlife and caused “potential harm to individual species.”

One example involved the bull trout of the Pacific Northwest. It was determined MacDonald was heavily involved in limiting the number of streams in which the fish should be protected. The report stated her decisions, according to Fish and Wildlife scientists, resulted in a rule “that was not based upon the best available science and was harmful to the recovery of the species.”

Another case was her decision to remove shipping channels from the recommended protected habitat areas for the gulf sturgeon, a fish native to the Gulf of Mexico. Her decision came “despite concerns expressed by region biologists and solicitors that the record did not support exclusion of the channels,” the report stated.

We believe Devaney’s findings should prompt the Obama administration to review all Endangered Species Act rulings made under the Bush administration to determine whether any of those decisions, especially those based on undue political influence, should be reversed. We bet it will find plenty of regulations it will have to undo.