Remember Julie MacDonald, President Bush’s former assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks who resigned in 2007 amid stories of sharing files with energy industry insiders and drawing conservation boundaries around family property?
Well, she’s back in the news.
A new report (pdf) released on Monday by the office of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) lambastes MacDonald for interfering in the execution of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to the report, issued by the Interior Department’s Inspector General at the request of Sen. Wyden, MacDonald — who was appointed by anti-environmental former Interior Secretary Gale Norton — interfered in 13 of 20 investigated decisions regarding endangered species protection and “compromised the scientific credibility of the Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Some of the juicier nuggets from the 141-page report’s findings follow after the jump.
The report finds that MacDonald forced biologists to jump through extraordinary hoops in seeking to get particular species added to or kept on the list — a process that came to be known within the department as being “MacDonalded.”
For example, during the 2004 review of the greater sage grouse, she asked biologists for “1,001 primary literature citations in their original form and requested that one biologist “photocopy an out-of-print book of approximately 400 pages.” She also “objected to the use of a phrase such as ‘a scientific review of the greater sage grouse’ because MacDonald thought the phrase would bias the panel” charged with reviewing the decision. In other words, in MacDonald’s view, science was itself a form of bias.
While reviewing a report about defining the limits of protected areas in California, MacDonald inserted into the text incorrect data from the internet, in support of a decision to exclude certain areas from critical habitat designation. When MacDonald’s error was discovered, Judge Craig Manson, the former assistant secretary and an ally of MacDonald, told the official to “stay the course” and publish the information in the Federal Register anyway. The decision ultimately cost the department $100,000 after it was sued over the error.
There were also allegations of conflicts of interest.
MacDonald and her husband owned “a farm in Dixon, CA near the habitat and spawning area for the Sacramento splittail, one of the species she helped push off the endangered species list] … Despite this potential conflict, MacDonald significantly participated in the editing process for the splittail.”
During the 2005 review of the Peirson’s milk vetch, she went on a joyride with American Sand Association executives, who were petitioning to have the flower removed from the endangered species list. The company’s newsletter later recounted:
MacDonald loved the ride with ASA President Grant George as was evidenced by her huge smile and her enthusiastic recap of it. She commented that it reminded her of her days in high school when she would go to carnivals and ride all the fast rides. At one point there was at least 3 feet of air below the Funco.” The newsletter further stated that “[the ASA expert Biologist] made an excellent presentation at a large OMV [Pierson’s milk vetch] site he monitors. All points in favor of our case were made … In the end, we all feel confident that our major points were made.
MacDonald refused to participate with the investigation. “Given the breathtaking arrogance with which you have conducted previous so-called investigations of me, I have no interest in any further discussion with your office,” she wrote in June to the inspector general.
