alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

March 30, 2007

Holy Flycatcher, Batman!

by @ 2:09 pm. Filed under hacks

When I was a youngster, adults would tell me stories about the Soviet government that sounded just like this:

At one point, according to Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall, MacDonald tangled with field personnel over designating habitat for the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, a bird whose range is from Arizona to New Mexico and Southern California. When scientists wrote that the bird had a “nesting range” of 2.1 miles, MacDonald told field personnel to change the number to 1.8 miles. Hall, a wildlife biologist who told the IG he had had a “running battle” with MacDonald, said she did not want the range to extend to California because her husband had a family ranch there.

In another incident described in the report, MacDonald argued with Hall over the Kootenai River sturgeon, a fish in Montana and Idaho that needs a certain level of river flow in order to spawn. Field biologists determined that the sturgeon’s needed flow level ranged between 2.3 and 5.9 cubic feet per second, but MacDonald instructed them to cite only the 5.9 figure, which would have aided dam operators. After Hall demanded she put the request in writing, the report noted, “she ultimately relented and they kept the 2.3 to 5.9 range.”

Just as troubling, MacDonald twice sent internal EPA documents — one involving water quality management — to individuals whose e-mail addresses ended in “chevrontexaco.com.”

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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