Fish & Wildlife doi

note F&W has some jurisdiction over oil in ANWR!

=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/liz-cheney-panned-for-bemoaning-grizzly-bear-protections-championed-by-indigenous-groups-because-theyre-destroying-our-western-way-of-life/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/liz-cheney-panned-for-bemoaning-grizzly-bear-protections-championed-by-indigenous-groups-because-theyre-destroying-our-western-way-of-life/</a>no lnx
Liz Cheney panned for bemoaning grizzly bear protections championed by indigenous groups because they’re ‘destroying our western way of life’ Written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams August 4, 2019Native tribes and their supporters on Friday defended their push for the continued inclusion of the grizzly bear of Yellowstone National Park on the endangered species list, after Rep. Liz Cheney claimed the protection of the bear violates the “Western way of life.”The bear was officially returned to the list created by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Tuesday, nearly a year after a federal judge found that the Trump administration had exceeded its authority when it attempted to remove the species.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sought to allow trophy hunters to shoot the Yellowstone bears, whose population in the park is just over 700, and to open up the public lands for fossil fuel industries. Native tribes including the Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes joined with the Humane Society and Wildearth Guardians to fight the administration.When the bear was officially returned to the list this week, Wyoming Republican Cheney claimed that the so-called “radical” groups were “intent on destroying our Western way of life” and had pushed for a rule that was “needless and harmful to the ecosystem.”
The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council (RMTLC), which testified at a congressional hearing in May on the Tribal Heritage and Grizzly Bear Protection Act, took issue with Cheney’s suggestion that hunters and oil companies’ desire to profit off the demise of the grizzly bear trumps the heritage of native tribes and the need for biodiversity.
“So, in striving to protect our culture, our religious and spiritual freedoms, our sovereignty, and our treaty rights—all of which are encapsulated in the grizzly issue—we are ‘destroying’ Cheney’s idea of the ‘Western way of life’?” Tom Rodgers, senior adviser to the RMTLC, told Native News Online.
“I would remind the congresswoman that at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition an estimated 100,000 grizzly bears roamed from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast,” he added. “That was all Indian Country. Now there are fewer than 2,000 grizzly bears and our people live in Third World conditions on meager reservations in the poorest counties in the U.S. Does she really want to talk about ‘destroying’ a ‘way of life’?” asked Rodgers.
Progressive congressional candidate Mckayla Wilkes was among the critics who took to social media to slam Cheney’s comments, calling them “absolutely surreal” considering the centuries-long and continued destruction of Native tribes’ “way of life” by numerous government policies.<div>
</div>=<div> no lnx</div><div><div>EnergywireClimatewireE&E DailyGreenwireE&E News PM Reports</div><div>E&E News</div><div>SEARCH:  </div><div>enter keyword</div><div> </div><div>Back to E&E News index page.</div><div>ARCTIC</div><div>Interior hid scientists' criticism of ANWR drilling: report</div><div>Kelsey Brugger, E&E News reporter</div><div>
</div><div>Greenwire: Tuesday, March 12, 2019</div><div>ANWR. Photo credit: Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikipedia</div><div>A view of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikipedia</div><div>
</div><div>This story was updated at 9:40 p.m. EDT.</div><div>Newly leaked Interior Department documents raise questions about the environmental review of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain.</div><div>
</div><div>The documents show that federal scientists drafted 18 memos detailing the environmental "unknowns" of drilling in the Arctic refuge, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which recently obtained the documents and published them today.</div><div>
</div><div>PEER charged that those documents have been excluded from public view and not released in accordance with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by advocacy groups. The advocacy group has petitioned the Interior Office of Inspector General to review the matter.</div><div>
</div><div>But top Interior Department officials, including Assistant Secretary Joe Balash and career employee and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Alaska Regional Director Greg Siekaniec, fiercely defended the agency's process and said PEER's claims were untrue.</div><div>
</div><div>"The Department is still processing numerous FOIA requests regarding the Coastal Plain, including request to which the information referenced by PEER may be responsive. PEER’s assertion that the Department is willfully 'hiding' relevant documents in response to those requests is untrue," Balash said in a statement to E&E News.</div><div>
</div><div>PEER asserted otherwise. "These memos were treated as if they did not exist," said Tim Whitehouse, the new PEER executive director and a former EPA attorney. "The Trump administration apparently does not want to admit that it is flying blind in opening one of the most sensitive places on the planet to petroleum development."</div><div>
</div><div>In December, the Trump administration released its draft environmental review for a potential oil and gas lease sale on the refuge's 1.5-million-acre coastal plain. The agency has held eight public hearings on the proposal; the public comment period ends tomorrow (Energywire, Feb. 13).</div><div>
</div><div>Those memos were drafted last year and covered a wide range of work by government scientists, including on soils, permafrost, wetlands, climate, air quality, oil spills and various species in the area, including the populous caribou herd. They covered topics that were both "extensive" and "of major significance," PEER said.</div><div>
</div><div>PEER also charged the agency with intentionally excluding scientific work from the draft environmental assessment.</div><div>
</div><div>"Our sources are concerned," Whitehouse said, alleging that that could be a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, making the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) legally vulnerable.</div><div>
</div><div>But Balash argued that the "EIS will not authorize any on-the-ground activity associated with the exploration or development of oil and gas resources on the Coastal Plain. Future on-the-ground actions requiring BLM approval, including potential exploration and development proposals, would require further NEPA analysis based on the site-specific proposal," he said.</div><div>
</div><div>FWS director Siekaniec said that concerns about suppressed science were "simply overstated."</div><div>
</div><div>The agency was asked to "investigate what our information gaps are regarding development of a series of Environmental Impact Statements that will lead to an oil and gas program for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Siekaniec said. "We did this with the understanding that existing, new, and/or much more current information will best inform EIS development. This was not intended to be a 'list' of science that informs only a leasing EIS," he said.</div><div>
</div><div>"None of our science concerns have been suppressed within the Agency or Department," Siekaniec said.</div><div>
</div><div>PEER is an organization of federal employees who work on environmental issues. It has for decades exposed alleged wrongdoing at agencies and protected whistleblowers.</div><div>
</div><div>Whitehouse said the large number of government employees participating in the Arctic refuge environmental review makes them nearly impossible to overlook. The employees work for the Bureau of Land Management as well as the Fish and Wildlife Service.</div><div>
</div><div>"We believe that they were deliberately withheld both from the DEIS process and from FOIA requests to which these memos would have been directly responsible," he said.</div><div>
</div><div>Balash said that after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ordered the Interior Secretary to move towards leasing tracts in the refuge, "leadership at the Department directed multiple agencies, including (FWS), to review of all existing studies, data, surveys, scientific literature, and information that had been gathered on the Coastal Plain to support the development of the program. The assessment of this information identified all of the information that will be needed to support the full range of activities—well beyond the leasing stage," he said. That assessment is still informing multiple agencies "on what studies to conduct and when," Balash said.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Twitter: @kelseybrugger Email: kbrugger@eenews.net</div></div>w no lnxFormer Monsanto Executive Picked by Trump to Lead Wildlife AgencyPresident Donald Trump said he will nominate a former Monsanto executive to head the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Aurelia Skipwith, who Western Values Project Executive Director Chris Saeger called "a darling of corporate special interests," worked at the agribusiness giant for more than six years. She has since worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of the Interior (DOI).A biologist and lawyer by training, Skipwith has been at the DOI since April 2017 overseeing policy and regulations at FWS and the National Park Service.
She said she shared Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's goals to "protect our species, increase public access and ensure science is at the forefront of our decisions" in a statement reported by the Associated Press.
If she is confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first African American woman to run FWS.Aurelia SkipwithDOI
During her time at Monsanto, Skipwith spent six years as a research team leader developing new agricultural products and then did a stint in corporate affairs, The Guardian reported. Monsanto polled as one of the 20 most hated companies in American in 2018, though its infamous name will soon die as part of a merger with Bayer this year.
FWS has been without an official head since Trump took office. Greg Sheehan, who served as deputy director for 14 months before stepping down in August, could not serve as acting director because he lacked a science degree, the Associated Press reported.
Under his lead, FWS has moved forward with policies that have worried environmentalists and animal lovers, including:
Weakening the Endangered Species Act: A massive DOI proposal included a provision removing the "blanket rule" giving threatened species the same protections as endangered species.Reversing the ban on imported elephant trophies: Last November, FWS undid an Obama-era ban on importing the remains of elephants killed legally in Zambia and Zimbabwe back into the U.S.Allowing bee-killing pesticides in national wildlife refuges: In August, FWS lifted another Obama-era ban on the use of genetically modified crops and certain pesticides in national wildlife refuges. Some of the newly-allowed pesticides are made by Monsanto, The Guardian pointed out.The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) told The Guardian it was unlikely that Skipwith would improve the situation, calling her "utterly unqualified" because she had no training in either wildlife management or fisheries.
"Aurelia Skipwith has been working in the Trump administration all along to end protections for billions of migratory birds, gut endangered species safeguards and eviscerate national monuments," CBD government affairs director Brett Hartl said.RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB'Merger From Hell' Wins Approval From Trump DOJ ›Monsanto's EPA-Manipulating Tactics Revealed in $289 Million Case ›Farmers, Conservationists Challenge Trump's EPA, Monsanto Over ... ›Trump Quietly OK's Bioengineered Farming on Wildlife Refuges ... ›https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-endangered-species-decisions-2613623876.html<h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-endangered-species-decisions-2613623876.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;">Leaked Trump Administration Memo: Keep Public in Dark About How Endangered Species Decisions Are Made</a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url expanded" data-elid="2613623876" data-authors="Center for Biological Diversity" data-headline="Leaked Trump Administration Memo: Keep Public in Dark About How Endangered Species Decisions Are Made" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><div class="widgetbrief">In a Trump administration memorandum leaked to the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is directing its staff to withhold, or delay releasing, certain public records about how the Endangered Species Act is carried out. That includes records where the advice of career wildlife scientists may be overridden by political appointees in the Trump administration.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">"This is a clear attempt to stifle science and boost Trump's anti-wildlife agenda," said Meg Townsend, the Center for Biological Diversity's open government attorney. "The public has every right to know how our government makes decisions about the fate of our most endangered species. This memo keeps the public in the dark and creates the perfect environment for political meddling."The memo recommends that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service limit the information released to the public for decisions regarding species protected under the Endangered Species Act. It provides a list of types of records for agency staff to withhold, including drafts of policies and rules, briefing documents and decision meeting notes and summaries.The agency has already implemented aspects of this guidance in actions like the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2011/keystone-xl-pipeline-10-05-2011.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Keystone XL pipeline construction lawsuit</a>, and in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision last year to prematurely remove endangered species protection from <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/grizzly-bear-08-30-2017.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Yellowstone grizzly bears</a>, as the memo confirms."Directing the agency to hide science violates every notion of the scientific process, which is supposed to be open and reviewable," said Townsend. "If the Service covers up dissenting views, it can get away with all kinds of bad decisions that could do enormous damage to some of America's most imperiled plants and animals."As this memo recommends that agency staff take a less transparent approach, Trump's anti-wildlife agenda is being pushed at all levels of government. Removing the public's ability to know what its government is doing—which is contrary to the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act—means that it will be more difficult to legally challenge agency actions that harm imperiled wildlife."This Trump memo would send all future Fish and Wildlife Service decisions into a black hole and result in more animals going extinct," Townsend said. "If the Trump administration would simply let the Fish and Wildlife Service follow the law and support decisions with science, it wouldn't need the memo or have anything to hide."</div></div></div>omfg2<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-quietly-awards-dozens-of-lion-trophy-permits-2590084960.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-quietly-awards-dozens-of-lion-trophy-permits-2590084960.html</a>Trump Admin. Quietly Awards Dozens of Lion Trophy Permits to Hunters, GOP Donors<div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2590084960" data-authors="Lorraine Chow" data-headline="Trump Admin. Quietly Awards Dozens of Lion Trophy Permits to Hunters, GOP Donors" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description">The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued more than three dozen permits for hunters to bring back <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lions" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lion</a>trophy parts from Zimbabwe and Zambia between 2016-2018, according to copies of the permits obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.The documents were obtained by <a href="https://friendsofanimals.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Friends of Animals</a> and reported by <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lion-trophies-us-government_us_5b594812e4b0fd5c73cb950a" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Huffington Post</a> on Thursday. Thirty-three hunters received a total of 38 lion trophy permits, according to the animal advocacy nonprofit.More than half of those hunters donated to Republican lawmakers or have ties to hunting advocacy group <a href="https://www.safariclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;">Safari Club International</a>, Friends of Animals said."The permits show that the current administration, not only has loosened restrictions on lion hunting, but is rewarding supporters," the nonprofit said in a <a href="https://friendsofanimals.org/news/u-s-hunters-with-connections-to-trump-received-fws-permits-to-hunt-african-lions-under-loosened-restrictions/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">press release</a>.  The report follows the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump</a> administration's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/elephant-trophy-imports-trump-2543499754.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">move in March</a> to allow <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/elephants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">elephant</a> and lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia on a case by case basis, a reversal from President Trump's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/elephant-trophy-imports-trump-zinke-2511054939.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">previous statements</a> that his administration would keep the Obama-era ban on imports of the animals.Last year, Secretary of the Interior <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/big-game-hunter-dead-giraffe-2583505970.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ryan Zinke</a> created an <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/08/2017-24328/international-wildlife-conservation-council-establishment-request-for-nominations" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">advisory committee</a> called the International Wildlife Conservation Council that is mainly comprised of trophy hunters and members of Safari Club International.Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.Among the hunters who received a permit was Steven Chancellor, a wealthy Indiana businessman and major GOP donor who raised more than $1 million for Republican candidates at a fundraiser at his home headlined by Donald Trump in 2016, Friends of Animals said. Chancellor—an avid hunter who has registered 482 confirmed kills, including 18 lions, between 1980 and 2008, the <a href="https://www.courierpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/jon-webb/2018/03/27/webb-big-game-hunting-whatever-you-want-and-thats-problem/461204002/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Courier & Press</a> reported—is an appointee on Sec. Zinke's International Wildlife Conservation Council. He was allowed to import lion parts from a July 2016 hunt in Zimbabwe, according to the FOIA request.Another hunter who received permits was Virginia resident Kent Greenawalt, who has donated more than $100,000 to Republican candidates and committees and $5,400 to Trump. He was allowed to bring back lion trophies after a hunt in Zambia in 2017 and another hunt in Zimbabwe in 2016, Friends of Animals revealed.Big game hunters <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/big-game-hunter-dead-giraffe-2583505970.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">say</a> their sport provides a service through game management and the trophy hunting fees provide revenue that directly funds conservation and contributes to African economies.However, opponents say that killing the animals is wrong and endangers vulnerable populations."If African wildlife is to survive the next few decades in their homelands, these elephants, lions and other animals—coveted by hunters for their strength and beauty—must be worth more alive than dead," said Friends of Animals President Priscilla Feral in the press release. "That means safeguarding habitat along with photographic safaris and ecotourism must outpace blood-drenched trophy hunting expeditions. Trophy hunting must expire and collapse from its own dead weight. Let's press for an administration that stops catering to an industry that has actually been in decline with a dwindling number of hunters."<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/science/trump-elephant-trophy-hunting.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The New York Times</a> reported that Fish and Wildlife Service previously made determinations about trophies publicly available, but under new rules, interested parties must file a FOIA request to see details of the permits.</div></div><div>=</div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/animal-rights/trump-administration-erodes-protections-endangered-animals-developers-new-attack">https://www.alternet.org/animal-rights/trump-administration-erodes-protections-endangered-animals-developers-new-attack</a>kitty bock HSUSA...Now, a new action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency puts at further peril endangered and threatened animals in the United States.The FWS has issued a memorandum prohibiting agency staff from even telling developers when they are required to file for a permit before they begin development projects on properties that could degrade the habitats of endangered and threatened species. According to the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/interior-warns-staffers-to-keep-mum-about-mandatory-endangered-species-protections_us_5aecee82e4b0ab5c3d65b4f7" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Huffington Post</a>, the memo, issued last month by the agency's principal deputy director Greg Sheehan, says it's "not appropriate" for staff to tell developers when they need to obtain such a permit—even though it may be required by law in many circumstances.The situation is pretty simple to understand: the survival of wildlife depends on biologically healthy and intact ecosystems and habitats, and our government should be giving the benefit of the doubt to imperiled species, not to commercial interests. Notification of the requirement to secure a permit is not onerous red tape; it’s a sign of a functional and effective government.I have written before about Sheehan, who is closely associated with <a data-stamped="true" href="https://blog.humanesociety.org/2015/09/report-exposes-safari-club-international-trophy-madness.html?credit=blog_post_051118_idhome-page" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Safari Club International</a>, a membership club for American trophy hunters. In March, Sheehan greenlighted the lifting of existing bans on the import of elephant and lion trophies from certain African countries and signaled that FWS will approve such imports on a case-by-case basis—a decision that the Humane Society of the United States is challenging in federal court.Last year the FWS prematurely and unlawfully <a data-stamped="true" href="https://blog.humanesociety.org/2018/04/alert-help-us-stop-wyoming-idaho-opening-trophy-hunts-yellowstone-grizzlies.html?credit=blog_post_051118_idhome-page" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">removed ESA protections for grizzly bears</a> in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, leading states in the region to move to open up a trophy hunting season for these great bears.Pandering to commercial interests and reducing transparency has become an alarming tendency for this administration, especially at the Department of the Interior. These furtive and reckless actions put at risk the beautiful wildlife that we all, as Americans, enjoy, cherish and wish to protect. We’ve got to stand up for wildlife, by standing strong against misguided moves by federal agencies charged with the protection of wild animal species.The FWS has also established an "advisory board" stocked with trophy hunters, giving them a platform to destroy any and all barriers to international trophy hunting and the import of trophy heads and parts by U.S. citizens.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolves-fws-proposal-2582052817.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolves-fws-proposal-2582052817.html</a><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">FWS Proposal 'Dooms' Wild Population of Endangered Red Wolves</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2582052817" data-authors="Olivia Rosane" data-headline="FWS Proposal 'Dooms' Wild Population of Endangered Red Wolves" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description">In April, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/red-wolf-endangered-2563600067.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">released a report</a> saying that the only remaining wild population of red wolves, in eastern North Carolina, could go extinct within eight years. On Wednesday, the FWS <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2018/06/service-proposes-new-management-rule-for-non-essential-experimental-population-of-red-wolves-in-north-carolina/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">published a proposal</a> that seems likely to speed that process along.The proposal would limit protected territory to public lands and remove restrictions on killing or harming wolves on private lands."We're very disappointed in this plan," <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Environmental Law Center</a> attorney Ramona McGee told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/06/27/interior-plans-to-let-people-to-kill-endangered-red-wolves/?utm_term=.4c51be3630c0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Washington Post</a>. "It's a plan that effectively dooms the red wolf in the wild. It's not enough to sustain a population, and if they wander off that [refuge] they can be shot and killed the moment they cross that boundary."The FWS estimates there are approximately 35 red wolves left in the wild, a dozen of which live in the public lands that would be their only protected habitat under the new proposal: the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the Dare County Bombing Range.FWS employees said the new proposal was written in response to the decline in the red wolves' population in the state."A recent Species Status Assessment informed us that past strategies were not effectively leading to recovery, so we believe that a concerted effort in a managed area will help," FWS Principal Deputy Director Greg Sheehan said in the proposal announcement.After being nearly wiped out from their territory spanning the Southeastern U.S. during the 20th century, a small population of captive red wolves were reintroduced to North Carolina in 1987. The population grew to 140 in the early 2000s before falling due to car and hunting accidents, leading wolves to begin breeding with coyotes. About 200 remain in captivity.The FWS assistant director for ecological services in the Southeast, Leopold Miranda, said the thinking behind the new proposal was to protect the genetic integrity and wild behavior of a small population of red wolves while the FWS looked for a better place to grow a wild population."Success for me right now is to keep this smaller wild population as intact as possible," Miranda said.But conservationists disagreed that the proposal was best for the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">endangered species</a>."We're very frustrated that the agency has continued to ignore the will of the American people on the red wolf issue. In 2016 conservation groups worked together to deliver a petition with half a million names calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do more to save the red wolf," <a href="https://wildlandsnetwork.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Wildlands Network</a> conservation scientist Ron Sutherland told The Washington Post.The public will have a chance to have their say again during a comment period that begins Thursday and ends July 30. Comments can be posted on <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">regulations.gov</a>. There will also be a public meeting to discuss the proposal from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on July 10 at Roanoke Festival Park in Manteo, North Carolina<div class="around-the-web"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/caribou-science-denial-2581784773.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Caribou Science Denial Cripples Conservation Efforts ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/humboldt-marten-extinction-marijuana-2581830736.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Adorable and Feisty Humboldt Marten Faces Extinction From Pot ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div></div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; word-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/yellowstone-grizzly-bears-2564657776.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;">Yellowstone Grizzly Bears to Lose Endangered Species Protection, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Confirms</a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2564657776" data-authors="Olivia Rosane" data-headline="Yellowstone Grizzly Bears to Lose Endangered Species Protection, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Confirms" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widgetbrief">The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reaffirmed its June 2017 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grizzly-bears-yellowstone-2446382005.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">decision</a> to designate grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as a separate population and remove that population from protections under the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Endangered Species</a> Act, the FWS announced in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/30/2018-09095/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-review-of-2017-final-rule-greater-yellowstone" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Federal Register</a> Friday.When the FWS <a href="https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/pressrel/2017/06222017_Secretary_Zinke_Announces_Recovery_and_Delisting_of_Yellowstone_Grizzly_Bear.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">announced</a> the June 22 decision, they pointed to the fact that the population of grizzly bears in the area in and around <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/yellowstone-national-park" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Yellowstone National Park</a> had grown from 136 in 1975, when the species was first listed, to 700 today.</div></div></div><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">New Trump Administration Plan for Mexican Gray Wolves Puts the 'Lobo' on Path to Extinction</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2513858305" data-authors="Earthjustice" data-headline="New Trump Administration Plan for Mexican Gray Wolves Puts the 'Lobo' on Path to Extinction" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description" style="">The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump</a> administration released on Wednesday its long-overdue <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/mexicanwolf/pdf/2017MexicanWolfRecoveryPlanRevision1Final.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">recovery plan for Mexican gray wolves</a>, one of the most <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" style="text-decoration-line: none;">endangered</a> mammal species in North America with an estimated wild population of just over 100. However, the plan charts a course for extinction rather than recovery, cutting off wolf access to vital recovery habitat and failing to respond to mounting genetic threats to the species."It's a 'recovery plan' in name only. Without additional habitat and greater genetic diversity, the wolves will continue to teeter on the brink of extinction. The plan provides none of these essential needs," said Heidi McIntosh, an attorney with the nonprofit environmental legal organization, <a href="http://earthjustice.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Earthjustice</a>, which sued the federal government on behalf of conservation organizations.<div id="AdThrive_Content_1_desktop" class="adthrive-ad adthrive-dynamic adthrive-content" data-google-query-id="CPLqo9mz6dcCFUePaQod0D4MSA" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center; overflow-x: visible !important;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_18190176/AdThrive_Content_1/58d2e52b44e6236dc5819ee2_0container" style="border: 0pt none; display: inline-block; width: 728px; height: 90px;">The Trump administration refused to listen to the tens of thousands of people who asked them to fix their awful draft plan before finalizing it. Among the people who weighed in asking for stronger protections for the wolves were concerned citizens, business owners and scientists."Lobos waited decades for a plan to save them, only to be given one that does not guarantee recovery," said Bryan Bird, Southwest director for <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Defenders of Wildlife</a>. "The <a href="https://www.fws.gov/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> had the opportunity to build a plan on a foundation of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">science</a> and conservation, but instead decided to let politics rule.""Instead of moving forward with a plan based on legitimate, science-based recommendations, the Service collaborated exclusively with the very states that have gone to extraordinary lengths to obstruct Mexican wolf recovery," said Maggie Howell of the <a href="https://nywolf.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Wolf Conservation Center</a>. "Critically endangered lobos deserve better.""The Fish and Wildlife Service published over 250 pages of supporting 'scientific' justification, used a sophisticated model to predict extinction probabilities, then tossed the science aside and asked the states how many wolves they would tolerate with no scientific justification whatsoever," said David Parsons, former Mexican wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "Using the states' arbitrary upper limit as a population cap in the population viability model and forcing additional recovery needs to Mexico, the plan will guarantee that from now to eternity no more than a running average of 325 Mexican wolves will ever be allowed to exist in the entire U.S. Southwest. This plan is a disgraceful sham."The best available science indicates that recovery of the Mexican gray wolf requires at least three connected populations totaling approximately 750 individuals, a carefully managed reintroduction effort that prioritizes improving the genetic health of the animals and the establishment of at least two additional population centers in the southern Rockies and in the Grand Canyon area."This isn't a recovery plan, it's a blueprint for disaster for Mexican gray wolves," said Michael Robinson, conservation advocate for the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "Limiting recovery to south of Interstate 40 keeps wolves out of the Grand Canyon and southern Rocky Mountains, areas that would greatly benefit from having wolves back and that scientists have determined are absolutely essential to their recovery."The recovery plan just released by the Trump administration ignores the science and falls short in several key and interrelated ways:</div></div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/elephants-lions-trump-2511386998.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/elephants-lions-trump-2511386998.html</a><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Over New Elephant and Lion Trophy Policies, Still in Effect Despite Trump's Tweets</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2511386998" data-authors="Center for Biological Diversity" data-headline="Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Over New Elephant and Lion Trophy Policies, Still in Effect Despite Trump's Tweets" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> sued the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump</a> administration Monday for allowing U.S. hunters to import <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/elephants" style="text-decoration-line: none;">elephant</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lions" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lion</a> trophies from Zimbabwe. The <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/pdfs/Complaint_Zimbabwe_Elephant_and_Lion_Imports.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a> aims to protect animals and resolve confusion created by the administration's contradictory announcements in recent days.The suit comes days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly reversed an Obama-era ban on elephant trophy imports based on catastrophic <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/African_elephants/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">elephant population</a> declines. Fish and Wildlife also recently greenlighted lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe, despite the controversial killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015.After massive public outcry, including from established Republican politicians and pundits, President Trump and Interior Sec. <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ryan-zinke" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ryan Zinke</a> announced a "hold" on issuing elephant trophy import permits late Friday night. President Trump suggested on Twitter that a new big-game trophy decision would be forthcoming. Unfortunately, the new federal policies allowing imports of elephant and lion trophies—referred to as "positive enhancement findings" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act—remain in effect."The Trump administration must clearly and permanently halt imports of lion and elephant trophies to protect these amazing animals from extinction," said Tanya Sanerib, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Trump's abrupt backpedaling after public outcry, while appreciated, shows how arbitrary this deplorable decision was. These incredibly imperiled creatures need a lot more than vague promises."...</div></div>=<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/farmed-salmon-pacific-ocean-2476573629.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/farmed-salmon-pacific-ocean-2476573629.html</a>Thousands of Atlantic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" style="text-decoration-line: none;">salmon</a> escaped from a damaged net pen at a Cooke Aquaculture fish farm off Cypress Island in Washington's Puget Sound on Saturday, sparking fears from some that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/aquaculture" style="text-decoration-line: none;">farm-raised fish</a> could threaten wild Pacific salmon.Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) <a href="http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/aug2217b/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> that 305,000 salmon were in the net pen at the time, but the company estimates that 4,000-5,000 fish escaped.Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture blamed the incident on high tides caused in the days leading up to and during Monday's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/eclipse" style="text-decoration-line: none;">solar eclipse</a>."Exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this week's solar eclipse caused damage to a salmon farm that has been in operation near Cypress Island for approximately 30 years," the company said.WDFW is monitoring the situation and crafting a fish spill-response plan with Cooke.<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/trump-administration-just-fine-poisoning-americas-iconic-bald-eagles">http://www.alternet.org/environment/trump-administration-just-fine-poisoning-americas-iconic-bald-eagles</a>guard Ukart'l... Blue Mountain Wildlife Center in Oregon, which has treated a series of eagles suffering from lead poisoning. “They eat things that have been shot, whether it’s big game like deer or elk or coyotes or ground squirrels,” said Lynn Tompkins of the center.Lead is a deadly toxin—one we’ve known about for ages—and it’s killing eagles around the nation. It’s well documented that it’s been the number one source of human-caused mortality for the endangered California condor. Yet, even though our government and the private sector have worked to get lead out of a range of products—removing it from gasoline, paint, and our water supply—it’s still widely used in modern wildlife management.Scientists call lead ammunition the “greatest, largely unregulated source of lead knowingly discharged into the environment in the United States.” Because bullets often shatter into fragments upon impact, lead makes its way into the food chain as animals feed off carcasses left in the field by hunters.The toll is staggering—between 10 and 20 million birds and other animals from more than 130 species die each year from lead poisoning. The real shame is that it’s wholly preventable. Lead alternatives are widespread. Comparably-priced copper and steel ammunition outperform lead and do not keep killing days, weeks, and months after leaving the gun. Hunters who use it say they like it, in terms of the ballistic properties.In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a new policy to phase out the use of lead ammo and fishing tackle on more than 150 million acres of national wildlife refuges and other agency lands and waterways.The new Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, <a data-stamped="true" href="http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2017/03/trumps-interior-secretary-reverses-ban-lead-ammo-national-wildlife-refuges-first-official-act.html?credit=blog_em_031717_id8850_blog_post_031717_id8850" style="text-decoration: none;">nullified that policy</a> on his first day.Zinke talked about process and involving key stakeholders. We have no objections to that, but the science of the issue isn’t in dispute. Lead kills wildlife. And in terms of the technology and affordability of alternatives, they exist. Sometimes, you just have to bite the bullet and make a change.As I write this, the <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2017/03/17/flint/99301466/" style="text-decoration: none;">EPA has announced</a> its plans to spend $100 million to get the lead out of Flint, Michigan’s water supply. Getting it out of the country’s ammunition supply won’t cost the federal government a dime, and is therefore far easier to achieve. We as a nation should get on with the transition away from lead. Gulliver reminds us of what’s at stake.
<div style="">=</div>iraq vet stands tall:<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://grist.org/climate-energy/the-inside-story-of-shells-push-to-drill-in-the-arctic/</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">yeoman</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last May, four months before the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell suspended exploration in offshore Alaska, Christopher Putnam needed to get something off his chest.Putnam is 44, originally from Texas, a trained wildlife biologist who also served as an Army infantry sergeant during the Iraq War. For almost six years, he has worked in Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,protecting marine mammals. It has been his job to ensure that Shell’s plans to drill more than 60 miles offshore in the Chukchi Sea — the wild Arctic water between Alaska and Siberia — wouldn’t harm Pacific walruses, particularly the juveniles, calves, and nursing mothers that dominate the Chukchi during the drilling season.Putnam’s relationship with Shell had always been amicable — until the company began insisting that walrus protection should take a backseat to economics and efficiency, and making it clear that it would fight any regulatory speed bumps placed in its way. That kind of determination made Shell a regular caller at the White House: Company president Marvin Odum was a guest there at least six times in the administration’s first two and a half years, and lobbyist Sara Glenn visited even more frequently, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/science/earth/shell-arctic-ocean-drilling-stands-to-open-new-oil-frontier.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">a 2012 New York Times article</a>. In light of his “all of the above” strategy to foster energy independence, President Obama obliged by creating a task force to help clear Shell’s path through the bureaucracy, the Times reported.<a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2014_0416_agendaeventmemorandum.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">Odum met in 2014</a> with then-presidential counselor John Podesta to discuss Chukchi drilling, though the exact details are unknown. The following year, Putnam began noticing leaders within the USFWS’s parent agency, the Department of the Interior, discussing in conference calls how to accommodate Shell’s demands. “Some people were working on various options — how we could interpret our regulations in such a way that were favorable that would allow Shell to do what they wanted to do,” he says. “When there’s discussion about changing the meaning of the regulations specifically to accommodate a company like Shell, then that started to become concerning for me.” By law, rule-making is a public process. “These discussions that were taking place behind the scenes, with no input or public accountability, were getting to the point that I simply wanted to put on the record that I had concerns.”In a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/putnam_memo.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">May 26 email</a>, Putnam unloaded. “Shell has clearly stated that they think minimizing disturbance to walruses is irrelevant,” he wrote to his then-boss, Mary Colligan, who is now the USFWS’s Alaska assistant regional director. “Shell insists it is not they who must comply with federal regulations, but we who should change the regulations to accommodate Shell.”Putnam then addressed the “voices” within the Interior Department that he says wanted to reinterpret the rules without involving the public. “I think it would be disingenuous, mendacious, and unethical,” he wrote. “Such a course of action may even be illegal.” If Shell were successful at skirting walrus-protection measures, what would come next? Would oil companies quietly try to lift industrial noise limits in the Arctic? Or weaken measures protecting denning polar bears? “Where,” he wrote, “would it end?”After Shell received its approvals and started drilling in July, its first well came up dry, leading the company to withdraw from offshore Alaska “for the foreseeable future.” In its <a href="http://www.shell.com/global/aboutshell/media/news-and-media-releases/2012/alaska-drilling-update-17092012.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">September pullout announcement</a>, Shell laid some of the blame on the “challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment.”But an Audubon investigation based on government documents — some filed in court and others obtained by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, through the Freedom of Information Act — points to a regulatory system that, while tougher than before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, still cut corners and stretched its own capacity in order to accommodate Shell’s drilling timeline. While USFWS scientists fought to protect marine mammals, they did so under crushing time constraints and at the expense of other conservation efforts. Meanwhile, at the Interior agency tasked with approving Shell’s oil leases and exploration plan, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), decision makers authorized overtime, weekend, and holiday work to deliver Shell a speedy decision, while failing to keep pace with climate and ecosystem science.These findings mirror, in part, a <a href="https://www.doioig.gov/sites/doioig.gov/files/WebRedacted_MgmtInterference_Lease193EIS.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">new investigative report</a>, released Dec. 7 by Interior’s Inspector General’s office. It detailed how some BOEM employees considered the agency’s timeline so aggressive that, in the words of one professional, a keyenvironmental analysis was “absolutely compromised” and “full of errors.”These efforts to accommodate a multinational energy company happened under the watch of President Barack Obama, who is reviled, ironically, by drilling advocates and eager to cement his legacy as a climate warrior.Shell declined several requests for interviews for this article. “This story is not relevant anymore,” wrote spokesperson Curtis Smith.In fact, though, the story is just as relevant as ever. In October’s third-quarter earnings call, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden emphasized that while the first foray proved unpromising, “there are of course other potential prospects in our Chukchi leasehold, as well as other areas offshore of Alaska.” And after the current leases expire in four years, there could be more to come. A <a href="http://www.boem.gov/2017-2022-DPP/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">BOEM draft plan</a> calls for new Arctic lease sales starting in 2020. Legislation pending in Congress at press time would require regular sales starting in 2023, even as new science cautions against Arctic drilling. Things might be quiet off the Alaskan coast right now, but that tranquility could very well prove temporary.<div class="mceTemp" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 24px;">When Shell won the vast majority of the drilling rights in the 2008 Chukchi lease sale — aka Lease Sale 193 — it called its $2.1 billion acquisition a victory for energy independence. “This is an opportunity to develop a proven and prolific basin to supply energy security for North America,” company vice president <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/environment-alaska-oil-chukchi-dc-idUSN0653817820080207#QL3gdqOKEUtIq0BV.97" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">Annell Bay told reporters.</a>Conservationists couldn’t imagine a worse place to drill, a place more fertile, more unspoiled, more vulnerable to climate change. Along with walruses, the Chukchi teems with polar bears, ringed seals, and bowhead and beluga whales. “Coming from the Lower 48, you don’t see areas like this, that are untouched by development,” says Leah Donahey, senior campaign director for the Alaska Wilderness League. Donahey recalls flying over the Chukchi in 2011 and watching thousands of belugas swimming below her. Inland she saw bears running on the tundra, and massive herds of caribou. There were no roads, no infrastructure — “just these small communities and then vast ocean.”Those communities rely on the ocean’s bounty: Subsistence hunting of marine mammals feeds many native Alaskans. “If we don’t have the animals to provide for our nutritional needs, we won’t survive,” says Faith Gemmill, executive director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), a grassroots organization. “It’s not just about food security. We’re talking about our entire way of life.” In Iñupiat villages, during traditional whale hunts, she says, “the stories are taught. The values are taught. Knowledge is passed down from the elders to the younger people.”Even before Shell bought its leases, REDOIL and the Alaska Wilderness League joined other groups, including the National Audubon Society, in suing the Bush administration to stop the sale. The <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/point_hope_v_kempthorne-complaint.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">2008 lawsuit</a>, filed by Earthjustice, noted that rising temperatures are already stressing polar bears and walruses. (The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole.) The Interior Department, said the plaintiffs, was selling leases without fully gauging the impacts on climate change, the likelihood of a spill, or the damage to wildlife caused by the deafening air guns used during seismic surveys. Nor, they added, did the government adequately<a href="https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2008/polar-distress" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">consider harm</a> to Steller’s and Spectacled Eiders, both threatened ducks.It was the first of several hard-fought legal cases over drilling in the Chukchi — cases that continue today, outlasting Shell’s pullout announcement.As the litigation meandered through the courts, two disasters gave ammunition to critics of Arctic drilling. First, the <a href="https://www.audubon.org/conservation/gulf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">BP oil spill </a>exposed lethal flaws in the regulatory system. It prompted new safety regulations and President Obama’s dissolution of BOEM’s predecessor, the Minerals Management Service, where staffers infamously<a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/oig_devaney_letter_9-9-08.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">accepted gifts</a> from, and indulged in <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/oig_investigative_report-gregory_smith_8-7-08_0.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">sex and cocaine</a> with, their energy-industry contacts. Second, Shell itself threw the perils of Arctic drilling into focus when it suffered a series of setbacks during its first season of exploration in 2012, culminating in the grounding of the drill ship Kulluk on Sitkalidak Island as it was towed through the Gulf of Alaska during a storm.In January 2014, the Ninth Circuit issued a <a href="http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Chukchi.Decision44Opinion.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">key decision</a> in Earthjustice’s lease-sale challenge — and highlighted the government’s efforts to help clear Shell’s path. The judges noted that BOEM based its environmental analysis on the “lowest possible amount of oil that was economical to produce.” By estimating just 1 billion barrels, the agency lowballed the possible impacts on habitat, climate, and bird populations. “BOEM considered only the best case scenario for environmental harm,” the court wrote. The decision led BOEM to revise its studies. For the environmental impact statement (EIS) finalized in February 2015, it chose a new and more reasonable estimate of 4.3 billion barrels — and, based on that, calculated a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2015-02_final_2nd_supplemental_eis_vol_1_p_156.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">75 percent chance</a> of “one or more large spills” during the 77-year Chukchi production cycle.<a href="http://www.boem.gov/Risk-and-Benefits-in-the-Chukchi-Sea/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">BOEM maintains</a> that such an accident would probably not be “catastrophic” in scale; its “likely” projected large spill from a production platform, based on the median size of similar spills, is 214,200 gallons, or less than 1/600th the volume of the BP disaster. But experts note that cleaning any discharge in the Chukchi would be a formidable, even impossible, task. Unlike the Gulf Coast, the region lacks basic infrastructure: There are no roads connecting villages or even rooms to house cleanup workers. The nearest Coast Guard station is a thousand miles away. There’s little research about how to keep marine mammals away from a spill — and only enough equipment to clean five oiled polar bears at a time. And, perhaps most alarming, there’s no comprehensive method for ridding icy water of oil; most cleanup studies have focused on temperate climates.“We’re talking about killing the environment,” says Robert Bea, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, who spent decades working for Shell and other energy companies. “Just think about an ice slushie with oil, with beluga and bowhead whales swimming around. If you do harm, it’s going to be extensive and it’s going to be long-term.”With delays piling up, Shell was nonetheless resolute about resuming exploratory drilling in 2015. Two months after the Ninth Circuit ruling, in April 2014, company president Odum <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2014_0402_shell_odum_letter_to_secretary_re_ls_193.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell</a>, whose department oversees BOEM. He asked her to “devote the resources necessary to removing, expeditiously, any current regulatory obstacles” that might slow down his company’s plans. Odum encouraged Jewell to “obtain any necessary additional resources to complete the work” on Shell’s schedule, which the company outlined in a one-pager called “Getting to Yes 2015 — Must Have Timeline.”Numerous internal agency emails and memos suggest that BOEM — while not promising Shell a specific outcome — did its Chukchi drilling evaluation at a breakneck pace. “We are keeping to this schedule to allow Shell the opportunity to make a decision about next year’s open water drilling season,” Assistant Interior Secretary Janice Schneider said in August 2014, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2014_0903_1745_kendall_strategy_for_ls_193_seis_pp5-6.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">according to an email by</a><a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2014_0903_1745_kendall_strategy_for_ls_193_seis_pp5-6.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"> BOEM’s Alaska regional director, James Kendall</a>.The agency drew up its own timetables, filled with various notations. “This schedule includes working overtime and weekends and holidays,” said one footnote. Requests for annual leave, training, and even office visitors would face “critical review.” Environmental analyses would receive “compressed review time.” And the hastened process, noted an agency document, might interfere with other major tasks like developing new air-quality regulations.In August, Kendall sent <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2014_0903_1745_kendall_strategy_for_ls_193_seis_pp2-3.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">an after-hours email</a> to BOEM deputy director Walter Cruickshank.B2] “Yes, its [sic] Saturday night and I’m in the office. … But I’m not alone, others are here as well,” he wrote. Kendall reported on a conversation with Assistant Secretary Schneider, aboard a government airplane, about the plan for completing the environmental impact study on time. “She … expressed her view (repeatedly) to me of just how absolutely difficult this was, almost bordering on impossible … and that it was obvious that there is absolutely NO WIGGLE room.“Folks are exhausted, blurry eyed, working long hours,” Kendall continued. “There are a number of folks on the floor with me as I type this. Emotions are running high. … Given the fact that folks will now have to run a marathon at a sprinters [sic] pace for some months now, we are working out a strategy for crossing the finish line on time.”Not everyone crossed the finish line. According to the recent Inspector General’s report, Interior knew of at least six BOEM employees who quit or retired early because of the EIS race. One fish biologist said the process was so “crushed” that she didn’t have time to review her own work for consistency or to peer-review others. She retired early, in October 2014, to preserve her own “personal and scientific integrity.” Another biologist said his collaboration with colleagues was limited to 15 to 45 minutes for a 700-page document. A sociocultural specialist said her section on public health was “gutted.”The Inspector General concluded that BOEM officials did not alter scientific findings. But the attorneys at Earthjustice, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2015-08-28_alaska_wilderness_league_v_jewell_plaintiffs_opening_brief.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">in a brief filed in U.S. District Court in August 2015</a>, nonetheless identified two fundamental flaws in the EIS that was released in 2015 after the Ninth Circuit decision.First, BOEM decided, because of its fast-tracked schedule, not to place certain sectors of the Chukchi, which scientists had recently identified as ecologically important, off-limits to drilling. Interior had begun its first environmental review a decade ago, when “information about the Chukchi Sea environment, habitat, and marine life was starkly limited,” wrote the lawyers. Since then the research has evolved, particularly about Hanna Shoal, a large, shallow area where the ice persists late into summer. Bowhead whales feed there, and great herds of walruses forage for clams. BOEM itself calls the shoal a “biological oasis,” and last year President Obama protected some of it from future, but not current, lease sales. Yet in its court-ordered update to the EIS, BOEM decided not to consider a new drilling footprint that would exclude Hanna Shoal. The agency said “sufficient protections” exist to safeguard marine mammals. Earthjustice points out in its brief that there’s a big difference between reducing harm and barring drilling from an area altogether.Second, Earthjustice charged that BOEM all but ignored what advances in climate science have revealed about the impact of drilling. It insisted there was “no reliable methodology” to determine how Lease Sale 193 would affect global energy consumption. The EIS didn’t mention, even in its 69-page bibliography, a January 2015 paper from the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Nature</a> concluding that “all Arctic resources” must stay in the ground to keep the planet within 2 degrees C of pre-industrial temperatures. “The impact of a single discrete project’s contribution to climate change cannot be covered in more detail due to scientific uncertainty,” the EIS said, adding that recent papers calling for undiscovered hydrocarbons to remain undeveloped “are noted.”Contacted for an interview, BOEM referred questions to the Interior Department, which declined the request without offering a reason. In a short emailed statement, BOEM spokesperson Connie Gillette said her agency conducted a “robust and rigorous” environmental review “consistent with a court-ordered timeline.” In fact, the court did not impose a timeline but rather directed BOEM to develop its own. In the Inspector General’s report, Interior officials acknowledged the rush. They said it wasn’t designed to help Shell but rather to shield the department from “blame” if Shell missed out on drilling in 2015.Former and current Interior staffers say BOEM’s efforts to accommodate Shell are not unusual. “Once you’ve granted a lease, there is internal pressure to propagate the regulatory process,” says Paul Bledsoe, who was an aide to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during the 1990s and more recently advised President Obama’s national commission on the BP oil spill. “There’s certainly pressure from the industry.” Others say the agencies regulating offshore production tend to draw employees sympathetic to drilling — environmentalists rarely study petroleum engineering. Add to that President Obama’s support for Arctic oil, and his desire not to be seen as stifling production, and the scale ends up being tipped.BOEM, according to those who interact with it, is a more responsible operation than its predecessor, the Minerals Management Service, where former staff scientists say their work was suppressed and where, in 2010, Alaska employees enjoyed a cake decorated with the words “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/science/earth/20alaska.html" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">Drill, Baby, Drill</a>.” Environmental protection is, in fact, written into the agency’s mandate. Still, “science-based” energy management — leasing fossil fuel reserves and approving drilling plans — are at that mandate’s core.“Even though some of the names shifted around, a lot of the culture of the agency remains the same,” says attorney Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff in the Earthjustice case. “The deep reforms that a lot of us were hoping to see after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill were in name but not actually in practice.”One of Shell’s hardest-fought battles in the Chukchi was over the rules protecting Alaska’s estimated 129,000 Pacific walruses. According to the USFWS’s Mary Colligan, concentrated industrial activity can cause grave harm to marine mammals, including walruses. “At the extreme, if they avoid an area because the disturbance is so high, and have to feed somewhere else, maybe the prey base isn’t as calorie-rich,” she says. That, in turn, can jeopardize survival or reproduction. Industrial noise can damage hearing and impede vocal communication.</div><div>In 2013, the USFWS developed regulations governing exploratory drilling in the Chukchi. One rule mandated a minimum 15-mile separation between active rigs. That buffer would help reduce the risk of hearing loss among walruses and give them safe passage if they needed to escape. Christopher Putnam, the wildlife biologist and Iraq vet — and Colligan’s colleague — helped craft that rule.Shell fought the 15-mile rule. The Chukchi well sites were tightly clustered within a 300-square-mile prospect, and the company wanted to position its rigs at the two most promising sites — just nine miles apart. It would already be spending the resources for a second rig because, in its exploration plan filed with BOEM, Shell had agreed to have a backup vessel in the vicinity to drill a relief well in the event of a blowout. According to Robert Dillon, a senior adviser to Alaska’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, Shell didn’t want that rig sitting idle when it could be drilling for oil.However, if the activity would affect certain marine mammals, Shell couldn’t drill until the USFWS issued a letter of authorization. Like their colleagues at BOEM, Fish and Wildlife staffers felt compelled to make their decisions in time for the 2015 drilling season. “We understood how important it was for Shell,” says Colligan. “They certainly communicated that to us very clearly.” Colligan calls this a courtesy the USFWS extends to all drillers because of the complex timing of their operations. “They’ve got ships staging here and there,” she says. “They’ve got decisions they have to make. That’s the environment that we were in.”The company conceded that drilling two wells located within nine miles of each other would flood more of the sea with noise, but pushed to prioritize other considerations. “Various distances may be required between rigs to effectively, efficiently, and economically explore the geological positioning of the oil and gas resources,” said an analysis Shell filed with the USFWS in April 2015. “Spacing of the rigs needs to be determined by these characteristics rather than an attempt to further minimize potential behavioral disturbance of walruses.”With that the oil company put its foot down. “Shell, as part of their 2015 proposed drilling operations, indicates it is not willing to comply with all required mitigation measures,” said <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/mmm_draft_comments_on_shell_loa_supplement_043015.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">a USFWS document</a>. The company’s absolute stance struck Putnam as odd. “It’s not their decision,” he says. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’re the federal government.”Shell claimed, in an April 2015 letter to Fish and Wildlife, that a nine-mile separation would have “negligible impact” on the animals. USFWS biologists remained unconvinced. They said Shell had undercounted the walrus population and failed to factor in such disturbances as the Sikorsky S-92 helicopters flying by 40 times a week. “The S-92,” Putnam <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/emails6_p153.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">wrote in an email to an Interior Department lawyer</a>, “is one of the loudest helicopters on earth.”With that much air traffic, Putnam says, a helicopter could startle thousands of animals resting on the ice. “They stampede into water, and you’ve got how many dead or injured walruses.” Chronic stress from loud noise could potentially trigger hormonal changes that threaten population size, he adds.Dealing with Shell’s insistence became a full-time job for Putnam. “I lost half a year,” he says. “Our entire department was almost exclusively focused on that one company, that one issue, for the entire period of time.”Putnam says he was supported by his Alaska colleagues in holding firm to the regulations. “We were reaching up the chain to make sure everyone was aware,” he says. “As you go higher and higher up, people become less and less aware of the details and nuances of the issue.” Hence the conference calls where Interior officials were groping for new interpretations of the rules, he says.He found one call particularly upsetting. An Interior staffer he had never met suggested that the Alaska office was misinterpreting the intent of the mammal-protection rules — rules that Putnam himself had helped author. “It was a little bit offensive,” he says, “for someone who’s never been involved to tell me what I was thinking at the time when I wrote them.”Shell would not be deterred by the USFWS’s scientists. It enlisted Sen. Murkowski, a drilling advocate, whose staff contacted the Interior Department to press the case. “That’s our job: to be the advocates for Alaska,” says Murkowski spokesperson Dillon.Then, in May, Allyson Anderson, associate director of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/2015_0507_1852_salerno_phone_call_on_wildlife_issue.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">emailed her boss</a> about a phone call with an Alaska colleague. “Shell intends to take the wildlife issue all the way up through the White House via murkowski [sic],” she wrote.Dillon says that, to his knowledge, Murkowski did not take the walrus issue that far. “I believe they [Shell] may have raised it with the White House,” he says — a plausible notion given the company’s past access — adding that that’s how Washington works: “Environmental groups clearly take their case directly to the White House on a regular basis. The right to seek the assistance of one’s government without fear of punishment or reprisals is enshrined in our Constitution.”What eventually preserved the 15-mile mandate in Shell’s drilling authorization, Colligan says, was “procedural”: There was no system for waiving the rule. Fish and Wildlife did promise to “consider making appropriate changes” to the rule through a public process, though that wouldn’t come in time for the 2015 season.In the end, notes Putnam, Interior officials narrowly defined “active” rigs as those actually drilling. As a result, Shell was <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/shell-gains-approval-drill-arctic" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">allowed to locate its rigs</a> nine miles apart as long as they didn’t drill simultaneously. The problem, according to Putnam, is that a non-drilling rig is still staffed and “active”: It requires helicopter support, noisy anchoring operations, icebreakers, and generators. In other words, there were still two industrial operations within nine miles of each other.In a bigger sense, though, the 15-mile rule might have been a deciding factor in Shell’s decision to pull out of offshore Alaska — because the Arctic’s short drilling season ended up limiting the company’s activity to a single well in 2015, and that one was a dud. After seven years of political and legal wrangling, countless raucous grassroots protests, and $7 billion in Arctic investments, Shell’s foray into Lease Sale 193 <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/shell-halts-arctic-drilling" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">halted rather suddenly</a>. Drilling supporters like Lisa Murkowski placed the blame for Shell’s pullout partly on the Obama administration’s “<a href="http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/10/murkowski-interior-attempting-to-shut-down-arctic-development-for-decades" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">destructive pattern of hostility</a>” toward energy production. “We’re seeing decisions out of the Interior that are really destroying our hope to be independent as a state,” Murkowski <a href="https://twitter.com/EnergyGOP/status/656478657943203840" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">said at an October meeting</a> of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which she chairs. She was displeased with Interior’s cancellation of two upcoming Alaska lease sales because of low industry interest, and with its refusal to extend Shell’s current leases.The federal government plans oil and gas lease sales in five-year increments. The next plan, set to be finalized this year, will cover 2017–22. The current draft calls for sales in the Beaufort in 2020 and the Chukchi in 2022. Beyond that, Murkowski’s proposed Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act of 2015 (<a href="https://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/senate_bill_2011.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Senate Bill 2011</a>) would require Interior to sell three Chukchi and three Beaufort leases during every five-year program, starting in fiscal year 2023.But drilling opponents see Shell’s withdrawal as a chance to take a breath and rethink the country’s approach to the Arctic’s energy reserves. They consider it a window of time available to overhaul the regulatory system further to reflect a post-BP world, and to examine whether the industry’s Arctic drilling ambitions should be scaled back or abandoned altogether. “The United States has been myopic for far too long in making decisions about the Arctic,” says Peter Van Tuyn, an Alaska attorney who has represented environmental and native Alaskan groups in challenging drilling. “Why not take the opportunity for the Obama administration to do a big-picture planning effort in the next year?“We have a fresh opportunity,” Van Tuyn continues. “For the first time in the Obama administration’s seven years in office, they do not have to make a decision about the future of the Arctic with some existing weight on the development side of the scale.” The $7 billion that Shell invested to drill a single well made for quite a heavy weight. “Now,” Van Tuyn says, “that scale can be leveled.”Since 1905, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/past-magazine-issues" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; background-color: transparent;">Audubon</a>, America’s leading advocate for conservation — and for birds — has used explanatory and advocacy journalism, as well as stunning original photography,</div><div>=</div></div>--The Florida panther is under attack.Majestic panthers once roamed throughout the Southeastern U.S., but now they can be found in justthree Florida counties. What little remains of their habitat is constantly under siege from development, oil drilling and mining.And now the Florida Wildlife Commission is trying to persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to remove the Florida panther from the endangered species list!<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=c0df6decaa4adcf95b74a3dced5938da5d4968c8b8cf42396cd584a35af99da50f96859d337506ec" title="How bizarre that Florida wildlife officials won't protect Florida panthers?? That means you must! Tell the USFWS to maintain protections for the Florida panther now." id="yui_3_16_0_1_1436372230319_103116" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; background: transparent;">How bizarre that Florida wildlife officials won't protect Florida panthers?? That means you must! Tell the USFWS to maintain protections for the Florida panther now.</a>On its own website, the USFWS states that fewer than 180 Florida panthers remain in the wild.1 There have already been 21 Florida panther deaths this year.2 And federal wildlife officials are currently moving forward with a proposal to remove the eastern cougar from the endangered species list-leaving the Florida panther as the only subspecies of these predators east of the Mississippi River.3The USFWS can stop efforts to undermine protection of the Florida panther. But they need to hear from you. Over 170,000 SierraRise activists have already sent messages in support of protecting Florida panthers and their habitat. Now it's your turn.==

Matthew J. Hogan was appointed acting director of the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/U.S.Fish_and_Wildlife_Service" title="U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> March 16, 2005, by <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Gale_Norton" title="Gale Norton" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Gale Norton</a>, Secretary, <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Department_of_the_Interior" title="Department of the Interior" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Department of the Interior</a>, "until a new director is nominated by President <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Bush</a> and confirmed by the U.S. Senate." Hogan, who had served as one of two deputy directors since his appointment in July 2002, replaced <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams" title="Steve Williams" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Steve Williams</a>, who resigned. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://news.fws.gov/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=AD2691F1-1143-3066-406E199B14D08F0B" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[1]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/trophy_hunting_advocate_named_acting_director_of_us_fish_and_wildlife_service.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[2]</a>

On July 15, 2005, it was <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050715-2.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">announced</a> that President Bush intended to nominate <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H._Dale_Hall" title="H. Dale Hall" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">H. Dale Hall</a>, director of the FWS Southwest Region based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as FWS director, subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1734" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[3]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.fws.gov/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[4]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.senate.gov/member/nm/domenici/general/news/record.cfm?ref=1&id=240715" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[5]</a>

<h2 style="background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; width: auto; display: inline;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan#Hogan.27s_Controversial_Appointment" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">1 Hogan's Controversial Appointment</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan#Profile" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2 Profile</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">3 External links</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan#Profiles" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">3.1 Profiles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J.Hogan#Articles.26_Commentary" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">3.2 Articles & Commentary</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Hogan's Controversial Appointment</h2>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Con: "'Having a <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Safari_Club_International" title="Safari Club International" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Safari Club</a> <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Lobbyist" title="Lobbyist" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">lobbyist</a> in charge, even temporarily, of the federal agency that is supposed to protect endangered species is precisely the wrong course to pursue for any Administration,' said <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Wayne_Pacelle" title="Wayne Pacelle" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Wayne Pacelle</a>, president and CEO of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Humane_Society_of_the_United_States" title="Humane Society of the United States" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">The HSUS</a>. 'Someone with a true wildlife conservation ethic, not an allegiance to the trophy hunting industry, should be nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the permanent director position as soon as possible.'" <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/trophy_hunting_advocate_named_acting_director_of_us_fish_and_wildlife_service.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[6]</a>

Pro: <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=John_R._Monson&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="John R. Monson (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">John R. Monson</a>, SCI president, said: "'It is unfortunate, however, ... that the animal extremists at the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.hsus.org/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">Humane Society of the United States</a>have chosen to use Mr. Hogan’s appointment as yet another shameless opportunity to defame SCI’s sterling conservation reputation, all in the name of a publicity stunt.'" <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.tonydean.com/issues2.html?sectionid=6161" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[7]</a>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Profile</h2>

From November 1998 until his appointment to the Fish and Wildlife Service Hogan, Hogan was the "Conservation Policy Director of the<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Congressional_Sportsmen%27s_Foundation" title="Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation</a>, serving as a liaison between the hunting, fishing and conservation communities and the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus."

Prior to this Hogan "served as Government Affairs Manager for <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Safari_Club_International" title="Safari Club International" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Safari Club International</a>, Legislative Director for Congressman <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Pete_Geren" title="Pete Geren" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Pete Geren</a> of Texas, and Press Assistant for the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives."

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">External links</h2>

<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Profiles</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.fws.gov/offices/matthogan.htm" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">Profile: Matthew J. Hogan</a>, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accessed August 2005.</li>

</ul>

<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Articles & Commentary</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.fws.gov/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=AD2691F1-1143-3066-406E199B14D08F0B" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">News Release: "Norton Names Matt Hogan Acting Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a> U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, March 16, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/trophy_hunting_advocate_named_acting_director_of_us_fish_and_wildlife_service.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Trophy Hunting Advocate Named Acting Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a> <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Humane_Society_of_the_United_States" title="Humane Society of the United States" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Humane Society of the United States</a>, March 18, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Tony Dean, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.tonydean.com/issues2.html?sectionid=6161" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Safari Club Salutes Hogan as Choice to head USFWS - Temporarily,"</a> tonydean.com, March 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Jessica Azuley, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1564" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Bush Gives Top Wildlife Protection Job to Trophy Hunter,"</a> New Standard News, March 20, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Allison A. Freeman, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1734" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Mixed Reviews for Bush's Choice to Lead Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a> Greenwire (<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Natural_Resources_Defense_Council" title="Natural Resources Defense Council" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>), July 18, 2005. Re H. Dale Hall....</li>

</li></ul>

===

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://link.huffingtonpost.com/4cb49b68b61807701fa21cad1sei3.leg/VADvnUmO93aUfrO4B2d45" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 28px; outline: none; font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Manatees May Soon Lose Their Endangered Status</a>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/manatees-endangered_n_5734956.html

==

<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/09/28/161987243/scientist-cleared-in-polar-bear-controversy">http://www.npr.org/2012/09/28/161987243/scientist-cleared-in-polar-bear-controversy</a>

<div class="dateblock" style="">September 28, 2012</div>

A long, controversial investigation of a polar bear scientist has ended with his government employer saying it does not look like he engaged in any scientific misconduct.

Charles Monnett is a wildlife researcher with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the Department of the Interior. He and a colleague, Jeffrey Gleason, wrote an influential 2006 report describing apparently drowned polar bears floating in the Arctic, which they saw during a routine aerial survey of whales.

Those dead bears became a symbol of the threat of climate change and melting ice, and Al Gore mentioned them in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth.

But the sightings were called into question in March 2010, after officials with Interior's Office of Inspector General received allegations of scientific misconduct.

Monnett spent more than two years under investigation, and agents repeatedly asked him detailed questions about the dead-polar-bear paper.

Cleared Of Misconduct

The final report on that investigation was delivered to BOEM about three months ago. On Friday, the agency told Monnett that no action would be taken against him — except for an official reprimand for an unrelated matter, the improper release of internal government documents back in 2007 and 2008.

vs fox headline:

<div>

<h1 id="article-title" class="entry-title">Polar Bear Scientist Reprimanded for Releasing Government Documents</h1>

Published September 29, 2012

Fox News Latino

</div>

===

bit old, mostly cda <a href="http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/category/climate-science-censorship/">http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/category/climate-science-censorship/</a>

The second category of Republican tactics of permanent power are those that must be banished from our public life forever. Hamburger and Wallsten discuss in great detail the misuse of executive branch power for raw political purposes. Karl Rove apparently dropped by unannounced to meetings of managers at the Fish and Wildlife Service and sent polling data to political appointees in such agencies to ensure that routine decisions were made according to the White House’s political priorities. Workshops on how to apply for funds for abstinence education were located in certain electorally key states in order to mobilize religious groups. There are dozens of similar examples. <a href="http://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/The%20second%20category%20of%20Republican%20tactics%20of%20permanent%20power%20are%20those%20that%20must%20be%20banished%20from%20our%20public%20life%20forever.%20Hamburger%20and%20Wallsten%20discuss%20in%20great%20detail%20the%20misuse%20of%20executive%20branch%20power%20for%20raw%20political%20purposes.%20Karl%20Rove%20apparently%20dropped%20by%20unannounced%20to%20meetings%20of%20managers%20at%20the%20Fish%20and%20Wildlife%20Service%20and%20sent%20polling%20data%20to%20political%20appointees%20in%20such%20agencies%20to%20ensure%20that%20routine%20decisions%20were%20made%20according%20to%20the%20White%20House%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%99s%20political%20priorities.%20Workshops%20on%20how%20to%20apply%20for%20funds%20for%20abstinence%20education%20were%20located%20in%20certain%20electorally%20key%20states%20in%20order%20to%20mobilize%20religious%20groups.%20There%20are%20dozens%20of%20similar%20examples.%20http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0610.schmitt.html">http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0610.schmitt.html</a>

===

norton ordered rewrite on arctic wildlife b/c of drill; snowmobiles (fed judge reprimanded)

Matthew J. Hogan was appointed acting director of the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/U.S.Fish_and_Wildlife_Service" title="U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> March 16, 2005, by <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Gale_Norton" title="Gale Norton" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Gale Norton</a>, Secretary, <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Department_of_the_Interior" title="Department of the Interior" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Department of the Interior</a>, "until a new director is nominated by President <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Bush</a> and confirmed by the U.S. Senate." Hogan, who had served as one of two deputy directors since his appointment in July 2002, replaced <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams" title="Steve Williams" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Steve Williams</a>, who resigned. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://news.fws.gov/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=AD2691F1-1143-3066-406E199B14D08F0B" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[1]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/trophy_hunting_advocate_named_acting_director_of_us_fish_and_wildlife_service.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[2]</a>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Profile</h2>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">External links</h2>

</ul>

<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Articles & Commentary</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.fws.gov/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=AD2691F1-1143-3066-406E199B14D08F0B" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">News Release: "Norton Names Matt Hogan Acting Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a> U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, March 16, 2005.</li>

</ul>

===

H. Dale Hall is the director of the Southwest Region of the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/U.S._Fish_and_Wildlife_Service" title="U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On July 15, 2005, it was announced that President Bush intended to nominate Hall as FWS director. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1734" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[1]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.fws.gov/" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[2]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.senate.gov/member/nm/domenici/general/news/record.cfm?ref=1&id=240715" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">[3]</a>

Hall was <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bipac.net/digest.asp?g=fmi" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">confirmed</a> by the Senate on October 7, 2005, replacing <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Matthew_J._Hogan" title="Matthew J. Hogan" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Matthew J. Hogan</a> who has served as acting director since his appointment March 16, 2005, by <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Gale_Norton" title="Gale Norton" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Gale Norton</a>, Secretary, <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Department_of_the_Interior" title="Department of the Interior" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Department of the Interior</a>. Hogan replaced <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steven_Williams" title="Steven Williams" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Steven Williams</a>, who resigned.

[<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H._Dale_Hall#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H._Dale_Hall#Profiles" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">1 Profiles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H._Dale_Hall#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2 External links</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H._Dale_Hall#Profiles_2" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.1 Profiles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/H.Dale_Hall#Articles.26_Commentary" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.2 Articles & Commentary</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Profiles</h2>

<h2 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">External links</h2>

<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Profiles</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/1997/r97-61.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"H. Dale Hall Named Southwest Deputy Regional Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a> FWS.org, June 17, 1997.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.fws.gov/newsreleases/r2/F1F1D963-F24B-4B73-9E3AAF9E180307CF.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"New Regional Director Named,"</a> FWS.org, July 22, 2002; also <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bonus.com/contour/act/http@@/www.fws.gov/southwest/rd.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">here</a>.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.fws.gov/newsreleases/shownews.cfm?newsid=2a80fcc2-65bf-03e7-22f82e2ef555c391" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">Press Release: "Secretary Norton Praises President’s Intention to Nominate H. Dale Hall as Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service,"</a>FWS.gov, July 18, 2005.</li>

</ul>

<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.2px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Articles & Commentary</h3>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050715-2.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">Personnel Announcement: H. Dale Hall</a>, White House, July 15, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://jiminhofe.com/cgi-data/news_doc/files/150.shtml" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Inhofe Praises President Bush's Intention to Nominate H. Dale Hall</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://jiminhofe.com/cgi-data/news_doc/files/150.shtml" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat"> as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director,"</a> Senator <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Jim_Inhofe" title="Jim Inhofe" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Jim Inhofe</a> (R-Oklahoma) (jiminhofe.com), July 15, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.senate.gov/member/nm/domenici/general/news/record.cfm?ref=1&id=240715" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Domenici Praises Bush Appointment of Dale Hall to Lead U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,"</a> Senator <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Pete_V._Domenici" title="Pete V. Domenici" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Pete V. Domenici</a> (R-New Mexico), U.S. Senate website, July 15, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Mitch Tobin, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/relatedarticles/84406.php" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Bush choice to head Fish and Wildlife stirs concern,"</a> Arizona Star, July 16, 2005.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/30293.html" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Environmentalists oppose nomination of Hall,"</a> Associated Press (Free New Mexican), July 19, 2005; also in <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apnomination07-19-05.htm" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">ABQ Journal</a>.</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Art Lander, Jr., <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/kentucky/sports/outdoors/12267674.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Harlan native nominee for post. Hall in Line to Lead U.S. Fish and Wildlife,"</a> Herald-Leader (Kentucky), July 31, 2005.</li>

</ul>

===

[<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#Biographical_Information" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">1 Biographical Information</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#Resources_and_articles" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2 Resources and articles</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#Related_Sourcewatch" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.1 Related Sourcewatch</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#References" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.2 References</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="background-image: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto;">Biographical Information</h2>

"Steve Williams joined the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Croda" title="Croda" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Croda</a> Board in July 2010 as a non-executive director. Steve was General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Unilever_plc" title="Unilever plc" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Unilever</a><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Unilever_plc" title="Unilever plc" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"> plc</a>and Unilever NV from 1986 until 2010. Prior to this he spent 11 years at <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Imperial_Chemical_Industries" title="Imperial Chemical Industries" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Imperial Chemical Industries</a> PLC as a commercial lawyer and Assistant Secretary. From 1995 until 2004 he was a nonexecutive director of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Bunzl_plc" title="Bunzl plc" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Bunzl plc</a>. From 2004 until 2010 he was Senior Independent Director of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Arriva_plc" title="Arriva plc" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Arriva plc</a>. Since 2008 he has been a non-executive director of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Whitbread_PLC" title="Whitbread PLC" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Whitbread PLC</a>, where he is also the Senior Independent Director. In addition, Steve is a director of <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=Eversheds&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Eversheds (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Eversheds</a> LLP, an international law firm, and a senior advisor to <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=Spencer_Stuart&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Spencer Stuart (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Spencer Stuart</a> LLP. He is Chairman of the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=De_La_Warr_Pavilion_Trust&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="De La Warr Pavilion Trust (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">De La Warr Pavilion Trust</a>and a member of the Board of the <a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php?title=Leverhulme_Trust&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Leverhulme Trust (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Leverhulme Trust</a>."<a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#cite_note-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a>

<h2 style="background-image: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto;">Resources and articles</h2>

<h3 style="background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto;">Related Sourcewatch</h3>

<h3 style="background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto;">References</h3>

<li id="cite_note-0" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://66.39.128.35/index.php/Steve_Williams#cite_ref-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">↑</a> Croda <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.croda.com/home.aspx?s=1&r=63&p=416" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaafzjrefuef59z4ejadeiq1f36k7u5e7zkxeuqpacj3wk7unokvxvk9khnqh7by9hbdydhnxgjprlqflo4m2ggfyjhhjq8v4agfrgpqx3jtjqgbofmchga="AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA" nakks="nAKks" jajfaaaaaelftksuqmcc="JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">Board</a>, organizational web page, accessed August 20, 2012.</li>

</ol>

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