WASHINGTON — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found the actions were tainted by political pressure from a former senior Interior Department official.
The agency acknowledged in a letter to Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., that the actions had been “inappropriately influenced” and that “revising the seven identified decisions is supported by scientific evidence and the proper legal standards.”
The reversal affects the protection for species including the white-tailed prairie dog, the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Canada lynx.
The rulings came under scrutiny last spring after an Interior Department inspector general concluded that agency scientists were being pressured to alter their findings on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, then a deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service. MacDonald resigned her position last May.
Rahall said in a statement that MacDonald, who was a civil engineer, “should never have been allowed near the endangered species program.” He called her involvement in species-protection cases over her three-year tenure an example of “this administration’s penchant for torpedoing science.”
Acting Fish and Wildlife director Kenneth Stansell wrote Rahall that the cases were reviewed “after questions were raised about the integrity of scientific information used and whether the decisions were made consistent with the appropriate legal standards.” He did not refer to MacDonald specifically.
Problems were found in seven of the eight cases, taken up for review after MacDonald resigned.
The wildlife agency said it will reconsider a petition to list as endangered the white-tailed prairie dog. The petition had been denied, but the agency said after its investigation “the Service believes this decision should be reconsidered.” It also said it will examine the continued listing of the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, as well as a separate ruling made concerning the mouse’s critical habitat. The agency decision to take the mouse out from under the protection of the Endangered Species Act was questioned after MacDonald’s involvement became known.
Four other cases being reconsidered involved declarations of critical habitat for the Canada lynx, the Hawaiian picture-wing fly, the Arroyo toad, and the California red-legged frog.
Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for the regional Fish and Wildlife office in Denver, said the decision doesn’t change the agency’s proposal to remove the mouse from protection in Wyoming but not in Colorado.
That proposal, announced this month, “basically remedies any undue influence” by MacDonald, Katzenberger said.
The Interior Department’s decision does mean Fish and Wildlife will take another look at a decision that left Colorado out of an area considered critical habitat for lynx. Colorado is reintroducing the lynx.
