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 Julie
A MacDonald
JULIE MACDONALD News:
20071128
-
Julie
MacDonald
- Animals
-
 Environmental
-  Science
-  Politics
- Agricultural
-  Business
-  California
-  WVa
- "7
federal wildlife decisions to be revised: A [Republican
President Bush] political appointee had overruled recommendations by staff
scientists on endangered species. She quit under a cloud." ... "Federal
wildlife regulators will revise seven controversial decisions on endangered
species and critical habitat made by an Interior Department political appointee
who quit in the spring amid charges of improper meddling in scientific
decisions." ... "California's arroyo toad and red-legged frog could regain
protection that federal biologists determined was crucial to their survival,
according to a letter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent Friday to
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman [West Virginia Democratic Representative]
Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.). Rahall released the letter publicly Tuesday."
... "Former Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald, a civil
engineer from California with no formal training in natural sciences, routinely
questioned and sometimes overruled recommendations by biologists and other
field staffers, according to documents, interviews and a review by the
department's inspector general. The review outlined instances in which
MacDonald advocated altering scientific conclusions in ways that led to
reduced protection for imperiled species and that favored developers and
agricultural businesses. And she was rebuked for providing internal documents
to lobbyists." ... "Under her direction, proposed habitat protection for
the endangered arroyo toad, a tiny amphibian that once inhabited many Southern
California creek regions, was slashed by 93%. Similarly, the protected
area proposed for the threatened California red-legged frog was reduced
from 4.1 million acres to 450,000 acres." -By Janet
Wilson -LAtimes
20070721
-
Julie
MacDonald
-
 Government
- Animals
-  Justice
- Science
- Politics
- Industry
- Seattle
-  Washington
- West
Virginia - "Decisions
on species to be reviewed: Methods of Interior official
who resigned in question." ... "In the wake of the resignation of a [Republican
President] Bush administration official who was rebuked for meddling in
scientists' calls about protecting endangered species, federal officials
on Friday announced plans to re-examine eight decisions influenced by the
disgraced official." ... "Environmentalists labeled the administration's
move a "token effort designed for damage control."" ... "Friday's announcement
by Dale Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, comes less
than three months after the resignation of Julie MacDonald, an Interior
Department official in charge of the wildlife service. She had been chastised
by the agency's inspector general for bullying agency scientists and leaking
information to industry groups." ... "The most recent controversy in the
Northwest involved a Washington, D.C.-based team of [Republican President]
Bush administration officials, including MacDonald, who overruled a panel
of Northwest-based experts and reduced by one-fifth the amount of acreage
protected as "critical habitat" for the spotted owl." ... ""People's bells
should go off when the folks in an agency's regional office are overruled
by political appointees in D.C.," [Seattle, Washington attorney from Earthjustice,
Kristen] Boyles said. "I don't believe the region is always right, but
I believe they are paying attention to the science because they are the
scientists." ... West Virginia Democratic Representative Nick Rahall: ""What
we have learned to date raises concerns about political tinkering with
science that has affected perhaps 100 endangered species-related decisions
-- and goodness knows what else -- that deserve further scrutiny," Rahall
said Friday." ... "Environmentalists noted that Hall was agreeing to review
only about a third of the cases in which misconduct by MacDonald was alleged."
-By Robert McClure and John Heilprin
-AP -SeattlePI.NWsource
20070330
-
Julie
A MacDonald
- Science
- Politics
- Business
- Government
-
 Land
- Animal
- Environmental
- Law
- "Report
Faults Interior Appointee: Landowner Issues Trumped
Animal Protections, IG Says." ... "A senior [Republican President] Bush
political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific
field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed
confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions,
the department's inspector general concluded." ... "The investigator's
report on Julie A. MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife
and parks -- which was triggered by an anonymous complaint from a Fish
and Wildlife Service employee and expanded in October after a Washington
Post article about MacDonald -- said she frequently sought to reshape the
agency's scientific reports in an effort to ease the impact of agency decisions
on private landowners." ... "The IG noted that MacDonald "admitted that
her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational
background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife
scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats,"
despite her lack of expertise." -By Juliet Eilperin
-WashingtonPost
20070329
-
Julie
A MacDonald
- Government
- Animal
-
 Water
- Environmental
- Science
- Law
-  Investigation
-  Oil
- Industry
-  E-Mail
- "Report
Says Interior Official Overrode Work of Scientists."
... "A top-ranking official overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service at
the Interior Department rode roughshod over agency scientists, and decisions
made on her watch may not survive court challenges, investigators within
the Interior Department have found." ... "Their report, sent to Congress
this week by the department's inspector general, does not accuse the official,
Julie A. MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and
parks, of any crime. But it does find that she violated federal rules when
she sent internal agency documents to industry lobbyists." ... "The inspector
general also found that Ms. MacDonald had sent internal government documents
by e-mail to a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation — a property-rights
group that frequently challenges endangered-species decisions." ... "She
twice sent internal Environmental Protection Agency documents — one involving
water quality management — to individuals whose e-mail addresses ended
in chevrontexaco.com, the report said." -By
Felicity Barringer -NYTimes
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