Maureen E. Ellis, me2 at u.washington.edu, Univ of WA & Des Moines, WA:

>The problem is that the people who have the power to delegate and
>legislate do not separate science and politics. Yes, as a scientist, I
>can and absolutely must keep my data "valid", but protecting nesting
>areas or any ecological continuity has nothing to do with the validity of
>nesting birds or thoughtful habitat management. It has to do with major
>political, cultural, and philosophical conflicts over the rights of
>increasing numbers of Homo sapiens to eke out every possible material
>benefit from every possibly usable resource....survival of the fittest to
>the extreme.

I've been out of town for a few days (photographing at Malheur, of
course) so have missed most of the debate I helped foment.

Maureen has captured precisely the point I was trying to make. I
wasn't suggesting that science be practiced in a political manner
(i.e. one must do objective research), but rather than scientists
can not pretend that decisions about the use of that research will
be used in an objective manner. If biologists care about future
biodiversity, they must understand that.

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