Bush admin again messes with science report

[montana500]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050618/ts_latimes/landstudyongrazingdenounced


Land Study on Grazing Denounced By Julie Cart Times Staff Writer
Sat Jun 18, 7:55 AM ET



The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study.

ADVERTISEMENT

A government biologist and a hydrologist, who both retired this year from the Bureau of Land Management, said their conclusions that the proposed new rules might adversely affect water quality and wildlife, including endangered species, were excised and replaced with language justifying less stringent regulations favored by cattle ranchers.

Grazing regulations, which affect 160 million acres of public land in the Western U.S., set the conditions under which ranchers may use that land, and guide government managers in determining how many cattle may graze, where and for how long without harming natural resources.