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Forest Service backs lynx researchers
Seattle P-I ^ | Thursday, January 17, 2002 | GRAHAM BLACK

Posted on 01/17/2002 8:19:56 AM PST by Trailer Trash

Forest Service backs lynx researchers

Scientists had no intent of skewing results, officials say

Thursday, January 17, 2002

By GRAHAM BLACK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

OLYMPIA -- Officials from the U.S. Forest Service and the state Fish and Wildlife Department tried to convince skeptical legislators yesterday that their researchers did not attempt to skew data in an ongoing survey of the threatened Canada lynx.

They did so with mixed results.

Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said he was convinced by the officials' testimony that the scientists meant no wrong and that the committee would not pursue the issue further.

However, Sens. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, and Bob Morton, R-Orient, called for a continuing investigation of the researchers and for possible criminal prosecution if it is determined they broke state law.

The researchers in question were conducting an interagency survey to determine the whereabouts of the elusive cats. They say they became suspicious of a lab testing hair samples, worrying that it was coming up with too many positive identifications of lynxes, given the rarity of the cats.

To test the lab's performance, they say, they submitted hair samples that were actually from genetically similar bobcats and captive lynx in 1999 and 2000.

Fish and Wildlife Director Jeff Koenings said the researchers exercised poor judgment, but that he believed they did so because they felt the lab's results were unreliable.

The state and federal researchers need more than a slap on the wrist, some Republican legislators said.

Stevens told a joint meeting of the House and Senate natural resources committees that she plans to seek the opinion of the state Attorney General's Office to determine whether criminal prosecution is warranted.

Stevens and other Republican members are not satisfied with the internal discipline doled out by the federal and state agencies in the matter.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: enviralists; michaeldobbs
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Us....?  We're not endangered.


1 posted on 01/17/2002 8:19:56 AM PST by Trailer Trash
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To: Trailer Trash
Sounds like the whole agency is corrupt
2 posted on 01/17/2002 8:23:31 AM PST by spycatcher
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To: spycatcher
What is it they say " the fish stinks from the head down".

I would expect to see these guys budget doubled for this.

3 posted on 01/17/2002 8:35:26 AM PST by steve50
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: spycatcher
Looks like a few in congress aren't quite as willing as the downtown Seattle enviro legislators to believe there is no fraud involved. This just in from Chuck Cushman (ALRA - American Land Rights Association, Battleground, WA:

Reps. Pombo, Peterson Fight Enviro Scams!

Congressmen Richard Pombo of California and John Peterson of Pennsylvania have taken the lead in Congress in investigating the ongoing fraud and abuses of the Endangered Species Act!!!

Pombo has been a Champion for private property and the Wise Use of public lands for all of his nearly ten years in Congress. His book, titled "This Land is Our Land," has been acclaimed as a "property rights manifesto" by reviewers, and is available for sale at www.worldnetdaily.com.

Pombo is Chairman of the Western Caucus, a group of about forty members of the House of Representatives who advocate private property rights, access to public lands, payment in lieu of taxes, and local control. Peterson is Communications Director of the Caucus, and has been a leader for property owners since he entered Congress in 1997.

Here is an editorial that they have written together (see below), which was just published on January 7 in the Washington Times newspaper. Pombo and Peterson are a GREAT team, and they deserve our thanks for investigating Endangered Species Act scams!!!

ACTION ITEM:

THANK Congressman Richard Pombo for investigating ESA scams, tell him to keep up the good work! rpombo @mail.house.gov www.house.gov/pombo

THANK Congressman John Peterson for investigating ESA scams, tell him to keep up the good work! For email, go to: www.house.gov/johnpeterson

THE LYNX HOAX DEBACLE

By Richard W. Pombo and John E. Peterson

The Washington Times, January 7, 2002

As Americans, we should have been astounded by the recent findings that federal officials intentionally planted hair from the threatened Canadian lynx in our national forests in order to impose sweeping land management regulations. We should have been shocked at the audacity of government employees to falsify evidence in order to advance their environmental agenda, and even more perplexed at the lackluster response from their respective agencies when the transgressions were brought to light.

But in truth, many of us who come from rural America have grown accustomed to environmental activism prevailing over the rule of law and over the best interests of families and communities. Time and time again, we have witnessed the federal government run roughshod because the Washington elite thought they knew better than the regular folks who tilled the soil, ran the cattle, or enjoyed their favorite campsite or trail. And, if a faulty study or falsified evidence has been necessary in order to enact radical environmental policies, government bureaucrats have had a green light for the past eight years because of the ends-justifies-the-means rationalization that became common practice during the Clinton administration.

This latest revelation, that officials from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife planted false evidence of a Canadian Lynx on three occasions in our national forests, received a typical response from the agencies. Instead of terminating the employees, the individuals were given counseling and placed right back on the job to carry on with their environmental activism.

This lackadaisical approach to willful, unethical conduct is unacceptable, and we see no credible alternative other than to terminate the parties if there is convincing evidence that they knowingly and willingly planted unauthorized samples. But more importantly, this pattern of disregard for rural America and the acceptance of this type of environmental activism in our government agencies must come to an end.

It is this same disregard for rural America that caused federal officials to go after Peggy Bargon for presenting then-first lady Hillary Clinton with an Indian "dream catcher" which she made from various bird feathers. Because some of these feathers had fallen off of birds covered under federal wildlife protection laws, Ms. Bargon's gift cost her thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees. Yet, when federal officials exhibit blatant and willful disregard for the law, they receive a slap on the wrist and go back to work.

Then there is the case of Donald Fife, a professional scientist specializing in environmental mining and engineering geology. He learned from a former U.S. Forest Service official that plants listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) had been secretly placed on his property in an attempt to close about 30,000 acres of the highest mineral valued land in Southern California.

The list of government offenses against rural families and communities over the past eight years is endless. On numerous occasions, agencies bypassed Congress and the public process by having political appointees enact new "rules" to fit the agenda of Al Gore and the environmental movement. When public meetings were held to listen to the will of the people, Clinton officials were notorious for massaging the results to conform with their environmental agenda. Using shoddy science, government agencies have routinely added plants, animals and other species to the ESA list in order to seize land from local communities and landowners.

It is high time that our federal agencies realize that their actions affect the livelihood of millions of citizens of rural America. The farmers, ranchers, small business owners and outdoorsmen who live in our districts must be able to work with federal land management agencies to protect our natural environment while still providing jobs and preserving their way of life. This is not possible in the face of willful corruption.

This latest debacle may just provide the necessary impetus for Congress to take seriously this kind of fraud and environmental activism in our federal agencies. As we take on this colossal task, we hope the Bush administration will embrace this opportunity to work with Congress to re-establish the credibility of land-management agencies so that our national treasures and our rich culture we enjoy in rural America can be protected for generations to come.

5 posted on 01/17/2002 9:29:50 AM PST by holyscroller
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To: farmfriend;editor-surveyor;Sierra Wasp
FYI
6 posted on 01/17/2002 9:32:35 AM PST by Fish out of Water
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To: Fish out of Water
Gracias.
7 posted on 01/17/2002 10:43:19 AM PST by farmfriend
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To: Fish out of Water; *Enviralists; 1Old Pro; 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub; a_federalist; abner...
You will note that the ones that think crime is ok, as long as it's for "gaia" have a D in front of their name, the ones that dont have an R.

No surprise, huh?

8 posted on 01/17/2002 5:16:25 PM PST by editor-surveyor
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To: editor-surveyor
I don't know why a lawsuit is not being put together right now against the agency that hired these clowns. Our government is infested with these vermin and it is they that should find themselves on the endangered species list as fas as holding and keeping government jobs.

Obviously the Republican Administrations have done a rotten job of packing federal jobs with conservatives. It is rediculous that a federal worker can't be fired unless they do something way over the top, that needs to change.

9 posted on 01/17/2002 5:29:13 PM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: editor-surveyor

Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said he was convinced by the officials' testimony that the scientists meant no wrong and that the committee would not pursue the issue further.

Call it incompetence or ignorance, either way Ken Jacobsen is unqualified to be the chairman of the SNRC.

10 posted on 01/17/2002 5:31:04 PM PST by Zon
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To: steve50
"I would expect to see these guys' budget doubled..."

You've been observing governments for quite some time, I assume. ;^)

11 posted on 01/17/2002 5:32:15 PM PST by headsonpikes
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To: Trailer Trash
Forest Service backs lynx researchers

we condone lying. we support phony science. we are deception. try to stop us.

12 posted on 01/17/2002 5:45:08 PM PST by glock rocks
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To: editor-surveyor
thanks for the ping, editor-surveyor!

The state and federal researchers need more than a slap on the wrist,
some Republican legislators said.


I think that PUBLICALLY NAMING these FRAUDS would be a good start.
Then when you hear plenty of folks saying they couldn't get these nimrods to face a public
forum and a few hard questions about their crime...we'd have another nail in their
coffins.
Speaking in terms of professional reputation, that is.
13 posted on 01/17/2002 6:01:03 PM PST by VOA
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To: carry okie
ping
14 posted on 01/17/2002 6:03:02 PM PST by B4Ranch
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To: Trailer Trash
About a year ago my husband and I were driving in Kennewick, Washington.
When we stopped at a red light the car next to us had a women holding a lynx in her lap.
At that time I said to my husband I didn't think you could own one of those.

Now I think it may have been one of the researchers who had the lynx and they pulled the hairs
out of it to plant in the forests.
I think I had better put on my tin foil hat. ;-)

15 posted on 01/17/2002 6:36:58 PM PST by Spunky
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To: steve50
The fish rots from the head down.
16 posted on 01/17/2002 7:24:32 PM PST by sauropod
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To: holyscroller
Good to see ya around!!!!!

Still making the earth shake with my big dino feet!

'Pod

17 posted on 01/17/2002 7:25:49 PM PST by sauropod
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To: editor-surveyor
Ping! How many Klinton holdovers are at the Forest Service?
18 posted on 01/17/2002 7:41:56 PM PST by mafree
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To: Trailer Trash
Is the Canadian Lynx a seperate breed? If not,there is nothing rare about them at all. In fact,they are spreading to areas where they haven't been seen for more than a hundred years. I live in NC,and there is one near my house. I know this not only because I have seen the tracks in my yard,but I keep finding body parts from full-grown racoons lying around. There's not many animals that will take on a full-grown coon by themselves unless they are desperate.
19 posted on 01/17/2002 7:50:24 PM PST by sneakypete
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To: mafree
Ping! How many Klinton holdovers are at the Forest Service?

The correct answer is "all of them".

20 posted on 01/17/2002 7:54:20 PM PST by sneakypete
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