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House Democrat seeks investigation of funding for salvage logging study
DAN BERMAN, GREENWIRE, 02/08/06
Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) yesterday called for an investigation into whether the Bureau of Land Management cut off funding for an Oregon State University study that has questioned the benefits of post-fire salvage logging for political reasons.
"I'm concerned that in this case funding may have been frozen to punish researchers for reporting findings that are unpopular with the administration," Inslee said in a letter to Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney. "Please immediately investigate whether Daniel Donato and his research team lost funding without cause or were treated more harshly than other federal research grant recipients."
At issue is last month's study by OSU graduate student Donato and five co-authors that said salvage logging following the 2002 Biscuit Fire in Oregon destroyed nearly three-fourths of seedlings that had regenerated naturally and increased the risk of future wildfires. The report, which received widespread media coverage after its release, implies that forests are better off without intervention from forest managers, either for salvage logging or replanting.
Last week, BLM said the study violated a provision of its $300,000 grant stipulating that it cannot be used to lobby Congress and must consult an agency scientist before publishing. The original version in the journal Sciencexpress included a reference to H.R. 4200, the Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act sponsored by Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Brian Baird (D-Wash.) and supported by the Bush administration. Science editor Donald Kennedy has said the language was the journal's fault, not Donato's. BLM has asked the university to respond to its concerns by this evening.
This morning, Walden said he and Baird would ask BLM not to suspend funding to the Donato study. "Even the perception of censorship is disruptive to science and positive dialogue," Walden said at a House Resources Committee hearing this morning.
Walden and Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) also agreed to hold a new hearing on the issues raised by the Donato study.
"My convictions on the importance of research are strongly included in this bill," Walden said, noting new requirements for peer review and a dedicated research fund will be added to the legislation.
Donato's study, as well as other research questioning the wisdom of post-fire salvage logging, has been cited by environmentalists and others who oppose the Walden-Baird legislation, Inslee noted. GOP staffers from the House Resources and Agriculture committees are currently working on a new draft of the bill.
Inslee compared this controversy to the recent accusations by the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies that top agency officials ordered public affairs staff to review drafts of his lectures and papers, along with interview requests from journalists.
"Unfortunately, it's very apparent to most neutral observers that under this administration in a variety of ways that the scientific process has been corrupted by political influence," Inslee told the Associated Press yesterday. "We saw that when the administration and their political forces tried to shackle distribution of information by the chief climate scientist in the United States, Dr. James Hansen, two weeks ago."
Hansen, NASA's top climatologist, charged that NASA officials handed down the gag order after he advocated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions during a speech in December to the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
"There is a very quiet nonthreatening but nonetheless growing concern in the scientific community about this administration's distrust of the scientific process," Inslee added. "It goes back to Galileo being punished for his views. We can't go back to those days."
Interior's IG office is reviewing Inslee's letter and has not made any decision regarding the issue, a spokesman said.
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