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September 17, 2008
Irony in the wilderness.
The majestic grizzly bear, once king of the Western wilderness but threatened with extinction for a third of a century, has roared back in Montana.The finding, from a $4.8 million, five-year study of grizzly bear DNA mocked by Republican presidential candidate John McCain as pork barrel spending, could help ease restrictions on oil and gas drilling, logging and other development.
And a bit of background:
To hear Mr. McCain tell it in his presidential stump speech and campaign ads, the government has squandered $3 million (actually more like $5 million) to study the DNA of bears in Montana. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he jokes, “but it was a waste of money.”A report by Joel Achenbach in The Washington Post makes clear, however, that this was not really a study of bear DNA but a study that used bear DNA to determine whether the grizzly bear was still a threatened species or had rebounded. Mr. McCain and his staff either failed to realize that or chose to distort the facts for political effect. Either choice is not encouraging.
The intent of the study, whose results have not yet been published, is to estimate the size and makeup of the grizzly bear population in a vast region, encompassing Glacier National Park...statistical models could then predict the total population.
That is hardly frivolous. It is a prerequisite for sensible administration of the Endangered Species Act.
The presumed Republican presidential nominee also fails to mention that the project was sponsored by Conrad Burns, a former Republican senator from Montana who chairs the McCain campaign in that state. Mr. McCain never explains why, if it was such a waste, he didn’t try to curtail it on the Senate floor.
McCain misfires at Grizzlies (NY Times, 3/12/08)
