Lynx hoax debases habitat study, compels firings, says Buck

Lynx hoax debases habitat study, compels firings says Buck

Olympia, WA - 12/16/01 -Outrage, frustration and disappointment characterized the response from state Rep. Jim Buck when he learned of an alleged hoax by seven state and
federal employees that could have manipulated natural-resource policy and
imposed recreational restrictions in two national forests in Washington.

According to a published report in Monday's Washington Times, two employees
of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) planted false samples of
Canadian lynx hair in an apparent effort to establish the presence of the
endangered animal in the Gifford Pinchot and Wenatchee national forests.
The newspaper report said the DFW employees were joined in falsifying the
samples by three Forest Service employees and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife
officials.

"If this is true, it s the most outrageous abuse of public trust that I
have ever encountered," said Buck, principal author of the landmark Salmon
Recovery Act in 1998 and the Forests and Fish timber agreement in 1999. "By
planting false samples, these individuals professionally disgraced
themselves, adulterated the science of a years-long (and questionable)
study that cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and raised
serious questions about the integrity of the federal and state agencies
involved. Whatever level of trust existed and it was tenuous at best has
been severely eroded. What s the point of trying to work in good faith with
the federal government on Endangered Species Act issues if all we get back
is subterfuge and deception?"

The Times story said the officials planted three separate samples of lynx
hair on rubbing posts used to identify existence of the animals in the two
national forests. DNA analysis of the samples revealed that two matched
that of a lynch living in a game preserve. A third sample was traced by DNA
to an escaped pet lynx being held for its owner in a federal facility. The
falsehood was reported to have been revealed by a Forest Service colleague.

Citing privacy concerns, identities of the employees involved have been
withheld by federal officials. According to The Washington Times, the
employees have been counseled for their actions and banned from
participating in the three-year study of the lynx, listed as threatened
under the ESA. Spokesman Steve Pozzanghera, deputy assistant director of
the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, also did not immediately
identify the DFW biologists involved, saying that both were "counseled and
corrective action taken," including being removed from further work on the
study.

That punishment doesn't t go far enough says Buck.

"I am calling for the immediate firings of the employees who were directly
involved in this tactical deception," said Buck, who also serves as
chairman of the House Republican Caucus. "Left undetected, the false
samplings could have ushered in a wide variety of new habitat regulations
ranging from restrictions on skiing and snowshoeing to livestock grazing
and logging. We re also talking about private property that could have been
affected, and people s livelihoods.

"I have spent the past six years trying to bring people to the table who
distrust the ESA, which many regard as a heavy-handed, restrictive and
unfair intrusion on private-property owners. Through it all, I ve tried to
bring a balance between environmental stewardship and property rights. But
if planting the lynx hair was a deliberate effort to fraudulently skew the
study, and The Washington Times report is accurate, these seven individuals
will have dealt the credibility of the Endangered Species Act a critical,
if not mortal, blow," Buck concluded.

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