The Union of Concerned Scientists is concerned again
— this time, about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The
Union, a nonprofit coalition of scientists and citizens, has
released the results of its survey of Fish and Wildlife Service
employees: Forty-four percent say they have been told, “for
non-scientific reasons,” to refrain from making findings that
actually protect endangered or threatened species (HCN, 6/23/03:
‘Jeopardy’ opinions go the way of the dodo).
Eighty-nine percent of managers knew of cases where U.S. Department
of the Interior political appointees “have injected
themselves” into scientific determinations; 69 percent of
scientists say the Service is not effective in its recovery of
protected species; and 32 percent say “they are not allowed to do
their jobs as scientists.”
Southwestern wolves
won in court: In February, the U.S. District Court for
New Mexico dismissed complaints against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service for its Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program. The suit,
filed by the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable
Economic Growth — private-property-rights activists who
believe in upholding “private rights on federal lands” such as
mining and grazing — sought to stop the eight-year-old
reintroduction program (HCN, 5/27/02: Wolves still struggle in the
Southwest). The coalition claimed that the agency improperly
imported wolves from other areas, that the wolves were hybrids, and
that losses to ranching operations were under-represented. The
judge disagreed.
A die-off of young salmon in the Klamath
River in 2002 is coming back to haunt fishermen — and
consumers (HCN, 6/23/03: Sound science goes sour). According to
California’s Press Democrat, the
state’s Department of Game and Fish predicts that there will
be fewer salmon for ocean fishermen to catch next year. Only 33,200
three-year-old chinook salmon returned to the Klamath to spawn last
fall, compared with 192,000 in 2003. That means the Pacific
Fisheries Management Council and NOAA Fisheries will probably enact
restrictions to protect the fish that survived. There’s a
lesson in economics here, too: The salmon that do make it to dinner
plates next year will cost more than usual, predict local
fishermen.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Follow-up.
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