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Feature article - Spring 2007 issue of Conservation Connections
Feature Article
ENTANGLED IN POLITICS OR ENLIGHTENED BY SCIENCE?
by Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Executive Science and Policy Director
Having recently testified as an expert witness about the recovery planning process for the Northern Spotted Owl in the House Natural Resources Committee's May 9th hearing on the topic of “Endangered Species Act Implementation: Science or Politics,” I am encouraged by congressional efforts to expose ongoing manipulations of science by the Bush administration.
The hearing was chaired by Congressman Nick J. Rahall, II, who opened with our headline's query to the nation about how we want the government to run the Endangered Species Act. He expressed his concern about attempts by administration officials to weaken the Act’s implementation, observing that
“What we are seeing here – if we could actually see behind the cloak of secrecy surrounding the Interior Department – is a complete disregard for the very science that has equipped us to be responsible stewards of this Earth with which we have been blessed.”
Among the infractions receiving attention was the secret and premature leak of draft regulations to oil companies, timber executives, and the Farm Bureau by Deputy Assistant Secretary of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Julie MacDonald, who recently resigned over allegations she was involved. While the hearing focused mainly on Ms. MacDonald, most of the criticism was aimed at her supervisor, Deputy Interior Director Lynn Scarlett, for not correcting these improprieties three years ago when they first were noted.
Under intense questioning from Congressmen DeFazio, Inslee, Rahall and others, a pattern of corruption was uncovered that goes much deeper than any one political appointee. They explored numerous examples of administration officials altering science documents on climate change, overturning science-based decisions, pressuring scientists on their findings, and ordering scientists to alter conclusions to favor development.
We believe Congressman Rahall’s question needs to be answered in an even broader context. As a nation we need to decide on the proper role of science in policy decisions, and, correspondingly, the role of policy in science. Ideally, good public policy should be informed by credible science. In this manner, science can and should be used to enlighten, test, and evaluate public policy so that we can make well-informed decisions.
Obviously, more than science goes into the “sausage making” of public policy. However, when policy makers interfere with, suppress, distort, or overturn scientific conclusions both science and public policy lose. Unfortunately, this administration repeatedly has warped science and interfered with good government decision making. Objectivity is a fundamental principle of both the scientific method and good government. For either to prosper, science must be free of interference – especially intrusion designed to produce preconceived outcomes. 
In the case of the spotted owl, I was able to document interference in science by the administration. I was an appointed member of the Fish & Wildlife Service recovery team for the northern spotted owl, where I served for nearly a year. To the dissatisfaction of myself and the Audubon Society (which also was represented on the team), the recovery plan now proposed by the Fish & Wildlife Service reduces protections for old-growth forests at a time when the owl is declining. A weakened owl plan, in addition to other rollbacks in forest protections under the Bush administration, will destabilize public policy and once again intensify litigation over old growth logging in the Pacific Northwest. And, it won’t do the owl any good!
This is precisely why NCCSP went to Congress to raise its voice and add documentation of another case of environmental policy abuse by this administration. NCCSP would like to thank board member, Dr. Dave Perry for being part of our science team. He help us tell our story to Congress.
In the coming months, we will be working with the Union for Concerned Scientists, the Society for Conservation Biology, American Lands, Audubon Society, and others to further daylight these abuses. We think the answer to Rep. Rahall's question is obvious – the government’s natural resource policies and agencies should be enlightened by science.
Members of the public can and should review and comment on the Fish & Wildlife Service Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan. My testimony and response to follow-up questions for the record detail the problems I found with the recovery planning process, and my critique identified eight primary deficiencies in the plan. And, watch for future action alerts from NCCSP on the owl recovery plan. The owl needs our careful attention to avoid further losses due to the entanglement of politics.
Feature photo: Dominick DellaSala testifying by Caitlin Love Hills, American Lands Alliance.
Feature photo: Northern Spotted Owl by J&K Hollingsworth, US Fish and Wildlife Service
