Scandals at Fish and Wildlife Service
A reporter asked about the scandals engulfing Julie A. MacDonald, President Bush’s choice to head the Fish and Wildlife Service. She was forced her to resign last April. “Corruption in the Department of the Interior may have contributed to this [sage grouse] decision,” replied David Pashley, ABC’s director of conservation programs.
He was referring to revelations that MacDonald rejected the findings of an Interior Department inspector general that the sage grouse be given ESA protection on grounds that their habitat was being destroyed in vast parts of the Rocky Mountain west by oil and gas drilling. Adding the sage grouse to the ESA list would have meant curtailing oil and gas corporations from drilling on federal lands. She leaked the inspector general’s internal document on the sage grouse to oil, gas and mining lobbyists.
Twice MacDonald leaked internal documents on EPA water quality to individuals whose e-mail address ended in chevrontexaco.com.
She also leaked internal Fish and Wildlife documents to the rabidly right-wing, pro-oil, pro-mining, and pro-timber-cutting Pacific Legal Foundation, which has filed repeated lawsuits against the Endangered Species Act.
When she stepped down, Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Julie MacDonald’s reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over. The Endangered Species Act and scientists everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.”
But eight months after she was gone, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their oily cronies still stand in the way of protecting endangered wildlife.
Western mountain states face biggest threats
During the telephone news conference, a reporter from Billings, Mont., asked about the level of threat to birds in his region. Flicker replied that the “Inter-Mountain West is the most threatened region due to energy development. There is an exceptionally high correlation between gas development and loss of habitat with the sage grouse and other nesting birds at risk.”
Butcher added, “Looking closely at Colorado and Wyoming, where huge numbers of leases of oil and gas lands have been approved, nesting grounds are being extremely disrupted by oil and gas development.”
He added, “The entire rancher type of living is being threatened by excessive development.”
The speakers stressed that the refusal to enforce the ESA and fully fund federal conservation programs is especially tragic — or outrageous — because they have proven so effective.
There is good news
“The good news is that people can make a difference,” Butcher said. Several species granted ESA status “now show stabilizing or even increasing populations.” Pashley concurred, telling the reporters, “The Watchlist sounds a real warning but fortunately, when we put our minds and laws to it, as we did with the bald eagle, whooping crane, and California condor, we can make a difference.” All these birds are making a slow but steady recovery, although only the bald eagle is a candidate for removal from the ESA list.
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