Sen. Feinstein hits Drakes Bay oyster farm report
by Peter Fimrite, SF Chronicle, March 23, 2011 [here]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein accused the U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday of downplaying evidence of misconduct by National Park Service scientists who apparently wanted to get a popular shellfish operation kicked out of Drakes Bay.
The Interior Department’s office of the solicitor released a report Tuesday outlining what it termed biased, improper, mistake-ridden work by scientists. But it concluded that the behavior did not rise to the level of intentional “scientific misconduct” - and that nothing criminal occurred.
“The National Park Service and the Department of the Interior have once again failed to grasp the severity of recent misconduct at Point Reyes National Seashore,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Peggy O’Dell, the park service deputy director. The senator demanded immediate steps to eliminate political agendas and instill in employees “a rigorous and objective pursuit of scientific truth.”
“It is critical,” she said, that the government “publicly disavow the practice of selectively misusing and misconstruing science to achieve a desired outcome.”
Feinstein’s angry reaction to the report is the latest in a seething controversy over efforts by the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. to extend a lease past 2012 to harvest shellfish in the bay where Sir Francis Drake landed more than four centuries ago. … [more]