Administration pulls scientists off near-complete river project

Administration pulls scientists off near-complete river project
By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index...erresearch.inc

WASHINGTON - The long-running dispute over management of the nation's
longest river took another twist when the Bush administration yanked
government scientists off a project to study the waterway's ecosystem.

The team had been on the job for years and was within weeks of
producing what could have been its final report. Conservation groups
criticized last week's unreported decision to remove the scientists,
which they said was to protect business interests at the expense of
the Endangered Species Act.

The move may block changes to the Missouri River's flow, because the
scientists had ordered the switch. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
has resisted changing river operations but is under a December
deadline to come up with a new plan that meets requirements of the
Endangered Species Act.


A different team of scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
will say whether the corps can avoid major changes - such as a
previously ordered switch to a more natural spring rise and low summer
flow - and remain in compliance with the act.

It's the latest development in a bitter battle over managing the
nation's longest river, which stretches 2,341 miles from Montana to
St. Louis, where it empties into the Mississippi.

Conservation groups accused the administration of trying to avoid
changing to a more seasonal ebb and flow to benefit birds and fish.

"In a month's time, a group of people that knows nothing about the
Missouri are supposed to write a credible biological opinion? Give me
a break," Chad Smith, spokesman for the group American Rivers said
Wednesday.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said critics were jumping to
conclusions.

"Obviously, that's prejudging what's going to happen here, and there
has been no prejudgment of what's going to happen here," said Hugh
Vickery, spokesman for the Interior Department, which includes the
service. "The bottom line is, this will go where the science leads.
There is no predetermination."

He said one of the new team leaders, Robyn Thorson, is regional
director of the Service's Minnesota-based Great Lakes-Big Rivers
region, which includes a portion of the Missouri. The other leader is
Dale Hall, regional director of the agency's Southwest Region in
Albuquerque, N.M.

The old team of scientists said three years ago the Missouri needs a
more natural spring rise and low summer levels to comply with the
Endangered Species Act, and their findings were confirmed by the
National Academy of Sciences. Current operations were put into place
before the river's sturgeon and shorebird species made the
government's threatened and endangered species list.

The corps resisted, and the Bush administration postponed the changes.
It now is seeking a new "biological opinion" from the wildlife
service.