Bush Choice to Head Fish and Wildlife Stirs Concern
Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 09:01 CDT
President Bush plans to nominate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's top official in the Southwest to be the director of the agency, sparking an outcry from environmentalists with whom he has repeatedly clashed.
H. Dale Hall, a 27-year veteran of the service, has been Southwest Regional Director in Albuquerque since 2001.
Besides administering the Endangered Species Act for non-marine species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the 95 million- acre National Wildlife Refuge System.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton praised Hall's experience working on logging issues in the Pacific Northwest, restoration in the Florida Everglades and a water settlement in the San Francisco Bay region.
Locally, Hall worked on a conservation plan for the Lower Colorado River that commits government agencies to spending $620 million on habitat protection during the next 50 years.
"In every instance he has sought consensus and solutions," Norton said in a statement.
Hall earned national attention this spring after a government watchdog group released a memo he wrote that ordered agency biologists to discount genetic information in decisions about endangered wildlife.
Another regional director for Fish and Wildlife, Ralph Morgenweck, criticized the policy in an internal memo, saying it "could run counter to the purpose of the Endangered Species Act."
The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which often squares off in court against Fish and Wildlife, called on the U.S. Senate to reject Hall's nomination.
"He has routinely sided with extraction interests, refused to meet with or include environmentalists in decision-making, and has undermined scientific standards at every turn," said Kieran Suckling, the center's policy director.
Hall is a native of Harlan, Ky., and an Air Force veteran. He holds a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Cumberland College in Kentucky and a master's degree in fisheries science from Louisiana State University.
* Contact reporter Mitch Tobin at 573-4185 or mtobin@azstarnet.com
Source: Arizona Daily Star
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