Background on Edits and Comments on Leaked USFWS Synthesis of Sage Grouse Information

The following information describes the leaked draft sage grouse analysis produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; why a Bush Administration official (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald) sought to discredit and purge information from the draft analysis; and some of the industry sources that official relied upon to make her comments and edits.

The leaked document: "Synthesis of Biological and Habitat Information for Use in the Greater Sage-grouse Extinction Risk Analysis"

  1. Mark Salvo, Director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign, received a copy of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service document in November 2004 titled "Synthesis of Biological and Habitat Information for Use in the Greater Sage-grouse Extinction Risk Analysis" (dated October 18, 2004). It is unknown who sent the document.

  2. A typed cover note was included in the envelope. The note read (in full): "Edits made by Julie MacDonald on a USFWS report synthesizing the sage grouse situation. MacDonald is the deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks [sic] in the Dept. of the Interior. This represents to [sic] DOI view of the sage grouse situation."

  3. The document appears to be a draft and includes printed edits and comments on the right side of the page (as could be displayed and printed using an advanced edition of Microsoft Word). According to the cover note, the edits and comments were purportedly made by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Department of Interior.

  4. The draft received appears to be approximately half of the full document. According to the table of contents (p. 4), about one-half of the document (the last half) is missing, including sections on "Energy Development," "Fire," "Invasive Species/Noxious Weeds," "Urbanization," "Overuse," "Disease and Predation," "Other Factors," and "Literature Cited." Also, the page numbers listed in the table of contents are not accurate for the rest of the document.


    5.
  5. The document is a broad overview of sage-grouse, sagebrush habitat, and ongoing threats to the species. It was apparently written by agency biologists for the agency's internal sage-grouse listing review team to help them make their Endangered Species Act listing decision for the species (due on December 29, 2004).

The Bush Administration, Science and the Endangered Species Act

  1. On February 18, 2004, over 60 leading scientists--Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors, and university chairs and presidents--signed a statement voicing their concern over the misuse of science by the Bush Administration.

  2. On July 23, 2004, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton lauded the Endangered Species Act as unique among U.S. laws because decisions are based on what biologists [not administration appointees] say is the best course of action to protect a species. Crosson, J. "Rare sage grouse might not get U.S. protection." Reuters (July 23, 2004)


  3. On November 15, 2004, in response to a letter from American Lands Alliance expressing concern over the possible undue influence of the Partnership for the West (an industry front-group--see below) on the agency's sage-grouse listing decision, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams wrote: "please be assured that we intend to base our determination as to whether the sage grouse warrants listing under the ESA on the best scientific and commercial information available."

The Partnership for the West

  1. The Partnership for the West is an industry front-group created in 2003 with the mission to weaken the Endangered Species Act and prevent species such as sage grouse from receiving protection under the law.


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  2. Former Bush Administration official Jim Sims is Executive Director of Partnership for the West. He previously served as Director of Communications for Vice President Cheney's secret National Energy Policy Development Group, which conceived of the current national energy policy that is ravaging western public lands. (Sims is/was also Executive Director of the Western Business Roundtable and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for the New West and Center for the New American Century, both conservative think tanks.)

  3. Conservationists discovered and publicized a memorandum drafted by Jim Sims of the Partnership for the West mapping the organization's strategy to pressure responsible officials to not list sage grouse under the ESA. The memo describes various tactics to muddy the listing process, such as "unleash(ing) grass-roots opposition to a listing, thus providing some cover to the political leadership at (the Interior Department) and throughout the administration"; engaging "political leaders in the West and in Congress to lobby the administration against listing"; and "engag(ing) with USFWS regional directors (on listing). ... If they do not readily engage, back channel with DOI officials." News/Media

WAFWA, "Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats"

  1. In June 2004 the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies released "Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats," a comprehensive report assessing the present status of sage grouse and their habitat (www.sagebrushsea.org/pdf/wafwa_assessment.pdf). According to the Wildlife Management Institute, "the 600-page conservation assessment is the product of an intensive and unprecedented year-along effort by the 11 state fish and wildlife agencies responsible for management of sage-grouse populations. The effort represents the work of well over 100 individuals from the state, federal and private sectors and the peer review of nine anonymous scientist referees selected by the Ecological Society of America."

  2. Although the WAFWA assessment suggests that declining grouse populations have leveled or even increased in a few areas in recent years [Dr. Clait E. Braun, an expert in sage-grouse ecology, questions evidence that populations have increased anywhere ], the report otherwise affirms conservationists' fears that both sage grouse and sagebrush steppe habitat are at risk. The 28 authors and contributors to the WAFWA assessment concluded: "we are not optimistic about the future of sage-grouse because of long-term population declines coupled with continued loss and degradation of habitat and other factors."

PFW Federal Information Quality Act Challenge to Sage Grouse Documents

  1. On September 23, 2004, the Partnership for the West submitted an information quality "challenge" pursuant to the Federal Information Quality Act against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's alleged improper dissemination of information contained in American Lands Alliance, et al. petition to list the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act; the Service's positive 90-day finding on petitions to list greater sage grouse; and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' "Conservation Assessment of Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats."

  2. The Federal Information Quality Act is a dubious law (enacted in 2000 as a legislative "rider") that allows anyone to challenge the veracity of information used or disseminated by federal agencies as part of a government decision making process. A Washington Post analysis of government records in 2004 indicated that the law has predominantly used by industry to stall or reverse agency decision-making that might adversely affect their interests. Among the various challenges filed by industry:
    3. The American Chemistry Council and others challenged data used by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as it sought to ban wood treated with heavy metals and arsenic in playground equipment.
    Logging groups challenged Forest Service calculations used to justify restrictions on timber harvests.
    Sugar interests challenged the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration over dietary recommendations to limit sugar intake.
    The Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce challenged data that led the National Institutes of Health to recommend that people cut back on salt.
    The Nickel Development Institute and other nickel interests challenged a government report on the hazards of that metal.
    The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers petitioned the CPSC to retract data that ranked the risk of lint fires in various clothes dryers.
    Weiss, R. "'Data quality' law is nemesis of regulation." Washington Post (August 6, 2004).

  3. The Sagebrush Sea Campaign has filed a preliminary response to the Partnership for the West's FIQA challenge, and will join the Western Environmental Law Center to file a more detailed response soon. Dr. Clait E. Braun of Grouse, Inc., has also reviewed the Partnership for the West's challenge and found the organization's contentions to be "a mix of exaggeration, mis-statements, misinterpretations, half-truths, and extraneous tidbits of information taken out of context, coupled with equivocal information that can be debated by competent scientists. The Challenge is not objective and is highly subjective and selective." Dr. Braun's analysis


  4. Despite the many flaws in the Partnership for the West's FIQA challenge, their success in influencing the sage-grouse listing process on behalf of industry is clearly reflected in the comments and edits by the Deputy Assistant Secretary on the leaked FWS biological analysis. Most of the information presented in the Partnership for the West's FIQA challenge was simply copied from comments by oil and gas companies, cattlemen's associations and other sage-grouse listing critics submitted in summer 2004 in response to the Fish and Wildlife Service's positive 90-day finding on petitions to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. The Deputy Assistant Secretary, in turn, cited many of the same contentions presented by the Partnership for the West in its FIQA challenge as she edited and deleted scientific information from the draft analysis, even going so far as to cite "DQA Petitions" received by the agency as justification for her changes (p. 2).

Contact Information

Mark Salvo is Director of the Sagebrush Sea Campaign (www.sagebrushsea.org), a project of Forest Guardians. The Sagebrush Sea Campaign seeks to focus both public attention and conservation resources on protecting and restoring the vast sagebrush steppe landscape. The campaign is an informal network of conservation, sport, recreation and other organizations with the common goal to conserve and restore the Sagebrush Sea for present and future generations. Mr. Salvo directs the campaign from Chandler, Arizona.