Embattled Interior official resigns post
5/1/2007, 7:06 p.m. ET
By MATTHEW DALY
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Interior Department official accused of pressuring
government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has
resigned.

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and
parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk
Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight
committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the
Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general,
who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules
and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered
species to private groups.

Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's
resignation but declined to comment further.

Environmentalists cheered the departure of MacDonald, who they say tried
to bully government scientists into altering their findings, often
without scientific basis.

"Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is finally over," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the
Center for Biological Diversity. "Endangered species and scientists
everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief."

MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences,
had served in her post since 2004. She was a senior adviser in the
department for two years before that.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said MacDonald had "betrayed the mission she
swore to uphold," adding that her actions "undermined both the work and
the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its many dedicated
employees."

Wyden placed a hold Monday on President Bush's nomination of Lyle
Laverty to be assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks
until allegations against MacDonald were resolved.

The inspector general's report said MacDonald tried to remove
protections for a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains based on a
questionable study, and reduced by 80 percent the amount of streams to
be protected to help bull trout recover in the Pacific Northwest.

MacDonald also pressured the Fish and Wildlife Service to alter findings
on the Kootenai River sturgeon in Idaho and Montana so dam operations
would not be harmed, the report said.

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