A number of speakers questioned the science behind determining the lizard was endangered, including Dan Womochel, a veteran field biologist."I've read all the papers available, and there's a tremendous amount of information there," he said. "There's also a tremendous amount of information that should be there but isn't."
The baseline information, he said that is collected by field biologists and submitted for consideration could not be found in most publications, he said, though there is "a tremendous amount of undocumented material or anecdotal data. It is completely inadequate data available to the scientific community to make a rational decision on whether this species should be listed. And no one has mentioned what constitutes a viable population. After 50-plus years of oil operations, you can still go out and catch lizards.
Amy Porter pointed out that the listed areas have been subject to grazing for 150 years and oil and gas operations for 50 years and "there is still a viable population of lizards. We believe many of the conclusions cited as justification are based on unreliable data collected over a short period of time under uncertain conditions, possibly by unqualified personnel."
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