Wildlife groups decry 'political' move

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

A Bush administration appointee ignored scientific research when she took four Colorado wildlife species out of the running for endangered species protection, conservation groups charged Monday.

"The Endangered Species Act states that listings are made based on science," said Erin Robertson of the Denver-based Center on Native Ecosystems. "It is illegal to allow politics to change the decisions."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald has pulled the Gunnison's prairie dog, the Gunnison sage grouse, the white-tailed prairie dog and the roundtail chub from the years-long process that selects candidates for an ESA listing.

Colorado is home to all four of those species.

MacDonald is under fire for her response to recommendations to protect eight species of animals and plants over a three-year period.

Four other species found in other states - the California tiger salamander, bull trout, a Mariana Islands plant and the Mexican garter snake - also were dropped.

MacDonald and other officials from the Interior Department were unavailable for comment Monday.

Under the Endangered Species Act, an animal or plant is nominated and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists perform a 90-day review of threats to the species' survival.

If the scientists find serious threats, the species' habitat and population are studied in depth for 12 months.

The act requires that if the research finds a significant risk, the species be considered for endangered species listing, which provides legal protections that can inhibit land development and incur other costs that have made species protection politically unpopular.

"There was no question among scientists that these species are imperiled and require protection," said Nicole Rosmarino of the New Mexico-based Forest Guardians.

"It was shocking how clear the political manipulation was," she said.

The conservation groups obtained background on the decision in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The scientific reports were not only ignored but ridiculed in MacDonald's notes and e-mails, said Rosmarino.

In the case of the Gunnison sage grouse, which had reached the 12-month study period, MacDonald wrote on a report about the impact of roads on the habitat:

"Has nothing to do with sage grouse. This belongs in a treatise on 'Why roads are bad.' "

Colorado's extensive oil and gas development, including roads, are threats to both the white-tailed prairie dog and the Gunnison sage grouse, said Robertson.

"The Endangered Species Act is supposed to be a biological decision, but this political appointee has been systematically reversing scientific findings," she said.

MacDonald, a civil engineer, worked for the California Resources Department before she was appointed to the federal position in 2002.

"This is an administration which has a culture of suppressing science for politics," said Robertson. "If it stands in the administration's way, they don't want to know about the science."

The administration has ignored its own scientific findings on climate change and water rights in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, she said.

In September, a federal court judge reversed the Interior Department's decision to limit water flows through the park, calling the decision nonsensical and illegal.

Endangered Species Act protection

Four Colorado species dropped from the process that creates candidates for protections:

•GUNNISON SAGE GROUSE: Lives in southwest Colorado, southeast Utah. Historically also inhabited New Mexico and Arizona. An estimated 4,000 breeding adults remain, mostly in Gunnison River Valley. Numbers declined because of development and lack of breeding adults.

• ROUNDTAIL CHUB: Lives in Colorado River in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and other states. Population shrinking because of introduction of non-native fish, water pollution and habitat degradation.

• GUNNISON'S PRAIRIE DOG: Habitat includes Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Population dropped 97 percent in the past century because of shooting, poisoning, energy development, disease.

• WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG: Lives in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. Vanished from 90 percent of native habitat because of shooting, poisoning, energy development and plague.

frazierd@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5308