WASHINGTON � Lawmakers want an investigation into whether government wildlife biologists reported finding lynx fur in two national forests to keep people out of the areas.

The Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service are tracking the rare Canadian lynx to determine how many there are and where they live. Data from the four-year survey will be used to determine how best to protect the lynx, which is classified as "threatened."

During the 2000 sampling session, biologists sent the lab doing DNA tests for the project three fur samples they said had come from parts of the Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot national forests in Washington state. Those areas are normally not home to lynx, which roam mostly along the northern border of the United States, plus Utah and Colorado.

The seven biologists later admitted they planted the samples, saying they did so to test whether the lab could accurately identify the lynx fur.

The cats, 3 feet long and 40 pounds at their largest, have brownish-gray fur, black-tufted ears and prey on snowshoe hares. Efforts to protect lynx habitats are under way in 57 forests in 16 states.

House Resources Committee Chairman James Hansen, R-Utah, and Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., chairman of the House forests subcommittee, called the action "grossly inadequate punishment given the magnitude of this offense."

They said if it is found that the intent was to skew the study, the biologists should be fired. None of them remain in the lynx survey program. Six were reassigned and one retired.

"These offenses minimally amount to professional malfeasance of the highest order," they wrote Tuesday in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, whose agencies administer the program.

Hansen and McInnis want a review of all data collected through the lynx recovery program before any land management decisions are made.

Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth said the fur fiasco is embarrassing, but said it never threatened any habitat with closure to the public.

"If they would've said there were lynx there when there wasn't, all that does is initiate more looking to see if there are lynx there," he said. "It wouldn't have caused a whole bunch of area to become lynx habitat."

Without additional scrutiny on the data collected, no assurances can be made that the "lynx recovery effort is grounded in science, rather than in the fraudulent behavior of unscrupulous field officers," Hansen and McInnis wrote. "Ultimately, the credibility of the lynx survey is now hanging by a thread."

Some proposed changes to protect the lynx include limiting the thinning of forests to improve the habitat for the snowshoe hares and to restrict snowmobiling and some other winter activities in the forest.

The congressmen have also asked the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into the matter and will convene hearings on the issue before McInnis' committee early next year.

Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Chris Tollefson said the agency is confident the lynx count has not been tainted.

"We don't believe that there was an intent to submit these results to skew the results of the survey, but it could have compromised the entire survey and forced us to do it all over again," he said.

Don Amador, western representative for the land-use group, Blue Ribbon Coalition, called the lynx survey another instance of "agencies being less than honest with the American public."

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Howard
Moses Lake WA
hhomes@homesley.com

Since there were seven of them doing this, doesn't that qualify as being a conspericy??? Shouldn't the RICO statutes apply???

I also noticed that they were "counciled" and "reassigned". Fired, fined and jailed would be more like it. But I'm just a logger, what would I know.

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Pausing to reload,

Rick

Never volunteer. Trust no one. Expect sabotage.

PS yes why aren't they in jail?????

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Howard
Moses Lake WA
hhomes@homesley.com

I am asking her to investigate their past projects to see if there was monkey biz there too. These guys didn't just start doing this!

jim dodd

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"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

Did they work for WA dept. of fish and game? It sounds like something they would pull. It seems like everything they do is questionable. How is Moses Lake these days? I lived there for about a year five years ago or so - worked for the Thrifty Foods store there.

P.S. Rick - I grew up in Burlington (21 years there, know lots of people in the Skagit Valley)

Bill C

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Howard
Moses Lake WA
hhomes@homesley.com

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Good Shooting!

Darn few 'yotes this year so far!

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Pausing to reload,

Rick

Never volunteer. Trust no one. Expect sabotage.

1) when exactly did they admit to this? After one of them opened her mouth and blabbed at the local sushi bar and started an investigation?

2) There are accepted and reasonable methods for insuring the validity of sample testing, and they are used all of the time. The lab in question may or may not know if a test is being conducted, and it has no effect on the outcome. In fact, they shouldn't even care.

3) I'm wondering if there aren't scapegoats involved? This might explain the reassignments with little outrage from those reassigned....

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Howard
Moses Lake WA
hhomes@homesley.com

I�m angry and dismayed over the fact that two Washington Department of

Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) biologists were involved in a breach of

proper scientific protocol while involved in a continuing, multi-year

joint lynx study for the U.S. Forest Service. As a biologist myself,

the behavior of these biologists is not only extremely embarrassing,

but unprofessional and cannot be tolerated. While the employees�

actions were isolated, and did not result in any land use

recommendations on the part of the agencies involved in the study,

they have cast a pall not only over the lynx study, but over our

Department as a whole. What they did will undoubtedly cause many to

question the integrity of other important research being conducted by

our Department and other natural resource agencies. And that�s a

shame.

As Director of the Department, I owe the public an apology, and pledge

to work with my three chief scientists and other staff to ensure

protocols are in place to prevent this from happening again. The two

WDFW employees involved have been barred from further research work.

For me, personally, the revelations are especially disheartening. I

spent many years training to become a biologist, and consider this a

slap in the face to myself and other biologists. Our integrity and

professionalism is now being questioned because of the arrogant

actions of a few. But I am confident that this was an isolated

occurrence, and I stand fully behind the integrity of the work

performed by this Department�s outstanding biological and scientific

staff.

Ironically, when I became director of the Department nearly three

years ago, I set about to increase this agency�s emphasis on the

development and implementation of sound science. Under my direction,

for example, chief scientist positions for the Department�s three

resource programs were created. The work these scientists have

subsequently done with the dedicated employees working under them has

not only enhanced the Department�s ability to deliver sound science,

but I believe enhanced our credibility with the public.

That credibility obviously has been damaged by these recent isolated

actions, and now it�s up to me and everybody in this Department to

restore it.

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"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

Dr. Jeffrey Koenings if you believe what you just said, why are the two still employees in your department?

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Howard
Moses Lake WA
hhomes@homesley.com