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Fur should fly Lamborn, Allard on the
mouse’s case
Our View - Sunday August 5, 2007 Colorado Springs Gazette
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http://www.gazette.com:80/opinion/lamborn_25685___article.html/agency_ramey.html
Democrats didn’t get the big bang they were hoping for from a House Natural
Resources Committee hearing Tuesday — the latest in a series aimed at
nailing Bush administration officials for allegedly politicizing endangered
species decisions.
The inquisitors were hoping for a smoking gun linking Vice President Dick
Cheney to the die-off of salmon in Oregon’s Klamath River, stemming from a
water dispute in 2001, which was the focus of a recent expose (read: hit
piece) by The Washington Post. But no damning revelations were produced by
the dogs and ponies paraded before the committee. That’s why the event
didn’t get much press. But one matter of local and regional interest was
raised.
Rep. Doug Lamborn placed into the record a six-page letter from Sen. Wayne
Allard to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, claiming that the regional
office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conspiring to keep the
Preble’s meadow jumping mouse from being de-listed, through a selective
interpretation of science and an effort to discredit Rob Roy Ramey, the
conservation biologist whose DNA and morphological analysis refuted the
rodent’s status as a subspecies. (We wrote about Allard’s allegations in
detail Wednesday). Lamborn pressed USFWS Director H. Dale Hall to
investigate these allegations, as Hall tries to make good on his pledge to
safeguard the integrity of science at the agency.
This followed by less than a week a request by Lamborn for a full briefing
from Kempthorne on the situation inside USFWS, where a decision on
de-listing the mouse has repeatedly been delayed. We’re glad someone is
holding the agency’s feet to the fire, given the costs and property-rights
impacts this fiasco has had on people living in mouse habitat.
The credibility of endangered species science, and the suspicion that agency
insiders might be finessing outcomes to suit their personal or ideological
agendas, dates back to at least 2001, when federal biologists were caught
planting samples of lynx fur in Washington state, suggesting the presence of
animals that weren’t actually there. Sounds were made at the time about
shoring up agency science. But Ramey’s work, along with these latest
revelations, raise new doubts and suspicions.
Lamborn also had testimony from Ramey placed into the record, which echoed
many of Allard’s allegations and cited other cases in which endangered
species decisions were based on dubious science. We detailed some of Ramey’s
allegations Wednesday.
If the committee and the agency are serious about ferreting out slanted
science, Lamborn said, the public also needs to know whether agency
insiders, outside academics and environmental groups are unduly influencing
decisions. “What we are talking about today involves transparency,” Lamborn
said. “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are questioning
decisions that were made (by the Bush administration) and that is fine, but
if they are serious about transparency, and not just using this hearing as
an opportunity to score political points, then they will join me in calling
for all information regarding this process to see the light of day.”
Hall gave Lamborn assurances that there would be a comprehensive review of
the Preble’s mouse process, including Allard’s and Ramey’s allegations.
We’ll be watching closely to see that there is.
We appreciate the initiative Allard and Lamborn are showing on this always
contentious issue. Daring to question the Endangered Species Act, or the
sometimes shoddy science underpinning it, is guaranteed to make one a target
for those who misuse the law to boost their regulatory power and
anti-development agendas — as Ramey found out.
Those who live in or near mouse habitat — those who have incurred costs and
had property rights impacted as a result of this listing — are entitled to a
thorough and independent investigation of the Allard and Ramey allegations.
Something’s rotten inside USFWS, it seems. And if Kempthorne, Hall and
agency personnel really want to clear away the strong whiff of scandal, some
fur should fly inside the agency.
Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
Phone (541) 883-6100
FAX (541) 883-8893
kwua@cvcwireless.net |