The feds have been taken over by the eco-nuts... Remember the “Lynx Survey Seven ? ”
Federal biologists were not trying to block access to national forest land when they sent fake lynx fur to a lab as part of a survey to protect the cats’ habitat, according to investigators and agency heads.
But one group of investigators said the scientists’ behavior showed “bad judgment, an absence of scientific rigor and several troubling policy issues.”
Still, congressional Republicans aren’t accepting the biologists’ explanation that they were simply trying to test the lab.
“That’s like Mohammed Atta saying he was trying to test airline security,” Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said during a House Resources Committee hearing on the lynx survey.
And Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., who has led the investigation into what he calls the “Lynx Survey Seven,” still wants to know why the employees weren’t punished more severely
“I’m still bewildered that these employees received a bonus and a pay increase,” McInnis said.
The Canada lynx has been deemed threatened in 16 Western states, including Colorado. In 1999, an interagency task force including the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife officials began a survey to figure out where the tuft-eared cats live and how to protect them. In areas where lynx are found, logging and snowmobiling could be banned.
But a handful of biologists working on the survey in national forests in Washington state sent the lab tufts of hair from captive lynx, essentially “planting” samples.
http://www.usconservation.org/lynx/Fur_flies_lynx_march_2002.html
Oh yes, the Lynx Survey. I remember that well, they sent the samples to the forensics lab in Ashland, OR, lived not far from it in So OR.
They got caught red handed and then tried to say it was a test. That was laughable but the caper was definitely not funny.
Thanks george76. She loves her mate, and he loves her, and they live together for life.