Scientists Say Congress Censoring Report Tell Clinton In Letter That River Basin Information Suppressed In Bill

Congress is trying to suppress new government research warning of significant damage to fisheries, forests and watersheds in the Columbia River basin, 45 scientists said in a letter to President Clinton.

The biologists, ecologists and other researchers said Tuesday a Republican-backed proposal in an Interior Department spending bill would censor information on the declining condition of the basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

President Clinton earlier promised to veto the overall bill because of concerns about mining reforms. The bill failed on the House floor last week and has been returned to a House-Senate conference committee for further negotiations toward a compromise.

The scientists, in a letter organized by the Pacific Rivers Council, said a section of the bill would restrict data in an upcoming report from the Scientific Integration Team that is part of the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project.

The team contains scientists from the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The section dictates that the report “shall not contain any material other than” information on forest and rangeland health.

Congress called for the project two years ago and spent $15 million on the research to determine the effects of logging, livestock grazing, water diversions and other activities on the region’s dwindling fish populations.

The scientists said the restricted report called for in the spending bill would be “a half-truth.”

The bill “deliberately attempts to suppress scientific information about public resources on public lands - important scientific information that was generated at public expense,” the scientists wrote in urging Clinton to veto it.

The research includes updated conditions of watersheds, trends of water resources and population status of threatened, endangered and sensitive species, including chinook salmon, bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, lynx and wolverines.

“The free flow of ideas and information is critical if scientific knowledge obtained at taxpayer expense is to contribute to sound decision making,” they said.

Signers included Robert J. Naiman, director of streamside studies at the University of Washington, and Kurt D. Fausch, chairman of Colorado State University’s Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology.

Other scientists on the letter were from Idaho State University, Humboldt State University, Virginia Tech, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the universities of Georgia, Alabama, New Mexico, North Dakota and Minnesota.