News Clips

Alexander Archipelago Logging Did No Restoration and Timber Exported to Asia ...

From: University World News “Washington State University (WSU) has agreed to pay a leading researcher US$300,000 to resolve a complaint about infringement of academic freedom by university administrators whom he accused of threatening him with disciplinary action, impeding his ...

From: Montana Standard “Robert Wielgus, director of the Carnivore Conservation Lab, sued the Pullman school for infringement of his academic freedom. Wielgus angered ranchers with his research of wolf behavior. He concluded the state’s policy of killing wolves that preyed on ...

From: Daily Inter Lake “In a lawsuit that stemmed from these issues, PEER alleged that the Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to complete required planning processes for the range. One of these failures, it claimed, was the absence of a Comprehensive Conservation Plan. In their ...

From: Capital Press “Wolf scientist Rob Wielgus, cheered by environmentalists and jeered by cattlemen, parted ways Tuesday with Washington State University, leaving with $300,000 to resolve claims he was muzzled by school administrators.The university denied any wrongdoing and said ...

From: Chemical Watch “The proposal, which was issued late last month, seeks to ensure that the data, models and science underpinning agency regulatory decisions are “transparent” and “available to the public for validation”. It has been fiercely criticized by ...

From: The Spokesman-Review “Kretz opposed Wielgus’ research, which contends that killing members of a wolf pack actually increases predation on livestock, and supported UW research that said Wielgus’s study was statistically unsupported. He described Wielgus as brilliant, but ...

From: The Lewiston Tribune “Rob published in very prestigious journals. You would think they would be proud of him and have his back,” Ruch said of WSU administrators. “Instead, they had a knife in his back.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...

From: The Bellingham Herald “Wielgus angered ranchers with his research of wolf behavior. He concluded the state’s policy of killing wolves that preyed on cattle was likely to increase cattle predation because it destabilized the structure of wolf packs.” Read more . . . ...

From: The Daily Evergreen “Wielgus, who served as Director of the Large Carnivore Conservation Laboratory, faced scrutiny from the university over research he carried out regarding the killing of wolves to protect livestock. WSU officials were reportedly worried that Wielgus’ ...

From: SF Gate “The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will grill executives from Tetra Tech, the firm accused of falsifying results from the $1 billion radiation cleanup at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, at a hearing Monday.” Read more . . . Read the PEER story ...

From: Beyond Pesticides “According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), hundreds of thousands of pounds of pesticides are sprayed on lands that are designated as refuges for wildlife and protected under U.S. law. Approximately 490,000 pounds of pesticides ...

From: The Seattle Times “Jeff Ruch, executive director of PEER, said the Wielgus incident showed that Washington has politicized its wolf policy and allowed politics into the halls of its land-grant university. “Most people believe academic freedom exists, particularly for tenured ...

From: The New Yorker “This seems to be either monkey-wrenching or just incredible incompetence. You have a civil-service system without the means to adjudicate disputes. The Trump philosophy is they just don’t want the agency to function at all.” Read more . . . Read the PEER ...

From: Sacramento Bee “The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation oversees water deliveries but said it would defer to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if farmers violate the judge’s order. However, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife said her agency’s officers wouldn’t stop ...

From: KFSK “Petersburg’s assembly on a split vote Monday decided not to send a letter to U.S. Forest Service officials with questions about Tongass timber sales. The letter was drafted to forest supervisor Earl Stewart and asked for specific changes that have been made to the ...

From: Chesterton Tribune “A special prosecutor will investigate allegations that the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Pavilion Partners LLC dodged state law in advance of renovations to the 90-year-old Pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park.” Read more . . . Read the ...

From: Truth Out “The rule would not apply to pesticide companies seeking to register new chemicals, extend federal registrations for pesticides already on the market, change a warning label, or establish a product’s effectiveness, according to joint analysis by Public Employees ...

From: Yellowstone Insider “Representatives from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility lamented the possible shift, saying that losing Wenk would be losing an invaluable advocate for wildlife and environmental issues in the park.” ...

From: Beyond Pesticides “Pruitt’s plan does not enable the public to have any meaningful information about ‘environmental health risk or safety risk’ as he claims,” stated PEER General Counsel Paula Dinerstein. “Under a false flag of scientific transparency, Pruitt’s ...