By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Another case of "biofraud" has surfaced in Washington state, prompting lawmakers there to call for congressional intervention. Top Stories

A state fish and wildlife biologist asked taxidermist Jim Gintz for grizzly bear hair samples in March 2001, said state Rep. Bob Sump, Republican co-chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. If such a sample had been given, it could have tainted a grizzly habitat study in Washington that encompasses 3,600 square miles and, as a result, affected recreation, timber, mining, road construction and other human activities. The Washington Times reported last month that seven federal and state employees were caught submitting false samples of another threatened species in the state, the Canadian lynx. When the taxidermist read that officials used the hair of captive lynx and pelts to fix the sample, he alerted Mr. Sump that additional fraud may be occurring. "Unfortunately, the lynx biofraud is not an isolated event but an egregious example of a serious malady that has infected environmental regulatory agencies," said Rob Gordon, director of the National Wilderness Institute.

This is getting to be really sad. What should be done about this typoe of fraud?

The rest of the article here:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-post-new.tcl?topic=Freedom%21%20self%20reliance

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002

Answers

Sorry, wrong address for the article, the correct one follows:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20020107-98672664.htm

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

First of all, we have WAY too many state and federal employees, period.

Second, these were all college graduates where the moral compass is the "end justifies the means" at the expense of truth.

Third, an enormous percentage of these college graduates with there Wildlife Biology degrees do not actually want to go hiking through wet wilderness being slapped by wet devils club and their feet tangled in the low growth. I believe most of them pursued their degree thinking the national forests had paved trails like the national parks do. They really do not want to get out of their warm dry SUVs to actually collect valid samples of anything. They really do not want to be that close to the creatures of their study.

This Canadian lynx fiasco is just the only one that has been well publicized from the state of Washington. Two other fake studies, just in my neighborhood, is the spotted owl count and the Sol Duc native steelhead.

What should be done? Why do these folks still have their jobs? They certainly wouldn't if they were in the private sector.

It was in the late 1970's that the federal and state policies changed from hiring woodsmen and mountain folks for their field work to insisting anyone above firefighter, tree planter and out house scrubber must have a college degree. Meanwhile our native trackers and packers, silviculturists and woodsmen continue to be underemployed, but spend many volunteer hours collecting evidence to refute the fake "official studies" that are waved around in the cities and capitols.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Here it's the spotted salamander, the cave cricket, the golden warbler (not even indigenous), and the Texas toad. It's not about protecting any species, it's about getting good land from people at pennies on the dollar to be a "sanctuary" and then selling that land to corporate developers at a premium. At least that's what it is here. The Austin City Council didn't even wait a full year to do exactly what I enumerated above. You also have to do an environmental impact study on your land before you can build a shed if you fall into these ever expanding areas. The impact study is at least $500. grrrrr. BTW, none of the animals listed above is in any danger at all. It's just part of the plan.

People who commit fraud are....criminal(?), stupid(?), or working a program(?). I vote for three and suggest someone (us?) should assign another to follow these guys around with cameras, or all government jobs last no longer than one year.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), January 07, 2002.

I agree. Most of these "environmentalists" like to sit in their Ivory Towers and theorize instead of coming on down to the front lines to see what things are REALLY like (Kinda sounds like our elected public officials doesn't it? LOL). A College Degree is no substitute for practical, hands-on experience.

My fear in privatizing this however, is that our federal, state, and local government will simply hand responsiblity over to Big Business (which is also notorious for falsifying data to further its agenda) instead of giving responsibility to people that are TRULT qualified.

"Environmentalists" that resort to lying to advance their agenda ultimately the environment, by muddying the picture of what is really going on and causing others to take inappropriate action, not to mention discrediting those who are truly concerned with environmental issues.

-- Nexar (Arax7@mvn.net), January 07, 2002.

There are right winged professional engineers that do look after hazzard's to people in industry. I have see a lot of money being made by giving companys the tax incenitives to clean up their act. They make a profit off of recycling their waste rather than dumping. But some of the outdoor types are giving the wrong picture of what true engineers are doing to a lot of clean up efforts. These people need to go to other country where there is no EPA and educate them.

-- John Stergios (jackstergios@aol.com), January 12, 2002.