> Janna Treisman, via Bonnie Phillips, posted a murrelet survey training
> notice with this statement:
> "The purpose of this training is to protect this rare, threatened
> seabird and our old growth forest ecosystem."

> I would hope the true purpose of the training would be to learn how to
> detect marbled murrelets in forests, which might help project leaders to
> determine whether murrelets are using the area for nesting.
> The above statement strikes me as political, not scientific.

Well, perhaps it is a bit of both? You may recall that in the
Salvage Rider Congress moved the goal posts, in a sense, by
proclaiming that the existing protocol for determining whether
or not murrelets are using an area for nesting was "bad science",
and demanded a stricter protocol - in hopes of getting their
hands on more timber (in which they've succeeded, BTW).

Sadly, we can no longer separate science and politics when
resource management issues are involved.

Still, it was worded in a rather extremely, political form :)

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, at http:://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza