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A high-ranking Interior Department official systematically pressured career employees into changing scientific documents and findings related to Endangered Species Act listings, Interior's inspector general said in a report released today.
Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, used her post to intervene in the Fish and Wildlife Service's work on species listing and critical habitat decisions and sent information to third parties to use in challenging the service in court, Inspector General Earl Devaney reported.
"MacDonald has been heavily involved with editing, commenting on, and reshaping the Endangered Species Program's scientific reports from the field," Devaney wrote. MacDonald has a degree in civil engineering and no formal education in natural sciences.
The IG report marks the latest in a series of incidents on a range of environmental issues — from climate change to forests — in which Bush administration political appointees have attempted to censor documents or limit the distribution of scientific information.
Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, called MacDonald's actions "highly inappropriate" and "very concerning." Dicks grilled Interior's top lawyer at a hearing yesterday on what he sees as a pattern of ethical problems — including the MacDonald report and former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles' guilty plea last week on a charge of lying to a Senate panel.
Interior Solicitor David Berhhardt, who declined to comment on what he said were personnel issues, said the department was reviewing the IG report and would make recommendations on any disciplinary actions. "We are in that process," Bernhardt told the House panel. "I am confident that the secretary believes in accountability."
But despite his professed close working relationship with Devaney on ethics practices at the department, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne told Greenwire today he had not seen the newest report and would not comment because it is a personnel matter.
Asked why he had not seen the report, Kempthorne said, "It doesn't go to me directly. It goes to the assistant secretary who has jurisdiction."
David Verhey, acting assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, did not return calls seeking comment.
Devaney sent the report to Interior officials nearly two months ago and briefed relevant lawmakers this week. Interior officials said it is standard practice to circulate a report internally first and give the agency 90 days to respond, but the House Natural Resources Committee distributed the report to reporters.
MacDonald has been at the center of complaints from environmental groups over the past year, who have charged her with flagrant edits of scientists' habitat and listing decisions to bring them more in line with political goals.
The Union of Concerned Scientists and Center for Biological Diversity released documents last year that showed she had rejected scientists' recommendations on federal protection for imperiled animals at least six times in the past three years. And a coalition of environmental groups sued Interior last December over its decision not to protect a prairie dog species, due to orders from MacDonald.
"If Julie MacDonald had any decency she'd resign," Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group, said today. "And if she didn't resign, I don't know why Secretary Kempthorne would keep her on."
MacDonald was not available to comment, a person answering the phone at her office said.
'An angry woman'
Devaney's report paints a picture of an aggressive, harsh manager, who would "badger" agency scientists with questions and go out of her way to call lower-level employees, rather than their managers, to "yell and curse at them," according to a manager in FWS's Portland office, who was interviewed for the report.
MacDonald lacked "the basics in managerial style," the Portland official said, and there was a lack of oversight from Interior management to keep her in check.
MacDonald acknowledged that it "was not beyond the realm of possibility that she swore at field personnel when challenging them on their scientific/biological findings," the report says. "She said she generally will match the tone of whoever is speaking to her."
Interviews with current and former FWS officials show a pattern of complaints about MacDonald's behavior, including current FWS Director H. Dale Hall, who told the IG he and MacDonald had a "running battle" over the chain of command within the agency and her attempts to circumvent them since he took office in October 2005.
FWS Deputy Director Marshall Jones told the IG that Hall had "'drawn a line in the sand' with MacDonald and had stated that she has the right to change policy but not the science coming from the field."
The manager of FWS's California-Nevada Operations Office told Devaney's investigators that MacDonald's behavior caused problems in court for the agency. "He stated MacDonald would often put a slant on the rules that would compromise FWS' position and success in court," the report states.
A former director of FWS's Endangered Species program told the IG that MacDonald "regularly bypassed managers to speak directly with field staff, often intimidating and bullying them into producing documents that had the desired effect she and the former assistant secretary wanted."
And the assistant director for external affairs described MacDonald as "an angry woman" who had been abusive to her and had become a liability to FWS. She stated MacDonald had demoralized the FWS program with her interference in endangered species studies — often reaching "way down the line" to have reports reflect what she wanted, the report says.
The report detailed instances in which MacDonald attempted to limit critical habitat designations of vernal pools in central California, combine three population segments of the California tiger salamander into one, and provided an e-mail criticizing a U.S. Geological Survey peer review to the California Farm Bureau Federation for use in a lawsuit on delisting the delta smelt.
MacDonald provided an unpublished copy of an interim critical habitat designation policy to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that has challenged several ESA listings in the West. She also forwarded U.S. EPA files on water policy and guidelines to a private AOL account and a chevrontexaco.com address.
MacDonald denied giving preferential treatment to the Farm Bureau or others.
"I try to respond to everyone/public when asked for information," she told the IG. "It's my duty as a public servant."
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