Herald and News: Klamath Falls, Oregon
http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2003/09/18/viewpoints/editorials/views.txt
Editorials
Using private firms' research worthwhile
Published September 18, 2003
Fish, Wildlife Service still able to review it
Give the Bush administration credit for following up
on the experience it gained during the 2001 water
crisis in the Klamath Basin. Irrigation water to the
Klamath Reclamation Project was held back then to
provide for fish in a decision that was later
determined to have insufficient scientific merit.
What the administration learned then is that letting
narrowly focused fish biologists make the decision
in such matters - especially without some form of
review - can be wrong. A lot of farmers got hurt
when the Fish and Wildlife Service cut off the water
and a review panel from the American Academy of
Science said there was no scientific basis for the
decision.
In 2003, the controversy continues, but pushed by
concerns about government objectivity that developed
during the Klamath Basin water crisis, the Fish and
Wildlife Service will hire a private firm to help
decide if two bird species should receive protection
under the Endangered Species Act.
It's a change, and a worthwhile experiment - and an
experiment is how it should be viewed.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will pay private firms
$800,000 to review the status of the northern
spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. To meet what
are believed to be the species' habitat needs, large
regions of forest lands were put off limits to
loggers in the early 1990s.
After a firm is chosen and the study conducted, the
results will be reviewed by the Fish and Wildlife
Service
It's too early to say if this approach will be
successful, and even deciding what "success" is may
be difficult. But it does open up the process rather
than encouraging an insular view from an insular
agency. That's probably to the good, and it could be
so without leaving Fish and Wildlife biologists
totally bypassed. Those considerations, it seems to
us, make it worth trying.
The "H&N view" represents the opinion of the
newspaper's editorial board, which consists of
Publisher John Walker, Editor Tim Fought, City
Editor Todd Kepple and Opinion Editor Pat Bushey.
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