My documentary on the fight over salmon and water rights on the Klamath River is close to finished. A recent grant from the Pacific Pioneer Fund will help pay for the online and color correction.

The issues covered in the film - lack of enough water for all the players, poor federal and state policy and the fate of an endangered species - are all still very relevant. In fact, because southern Oregon didn't receive the deluge of rain that most of California experienced this winter, critical water shortages are predicted for the Klamath River Basin this summer. A huge problem for both man and fish.

Here's an article on the shortage of salmon due to low spawning returns to the Klamath River and its tributaries.

Here's an interesting article from the San Francisco Chronicle that covers some of the same issues in my documentary Battle for the Klamath:

Wildlife scientists feeling heat Species-protection data suppressed, many report - Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington BureauThursday, February 10, 2005

Washington -- Scientists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they've been forced to alter or withhold findings that would have led to greater protections for endangered species, according to a survey released Wednesday by two environmental groups.

The scientists charge that top regional and national officials in the agency suppressed scientific information to avoid confrontations with industry groups or to follow the Bush administration's political policies.

The mail-in survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- which drew responses from 414 of 1,400 biologists, ecologists, botanists and other scientists -- was not a scientific poll. But the two groups said the large number of responses reflect concern by of many Fish and Wildlife Service employees that political appointees are inappropriately influencing the science that drives decisions to list species and protect their habitat.

A spokesman for the agency said he could not comment on the report until agency officials have had time to review it.

But an Interior Department official said the survey results reflect the natural tension between agency scientists and managers in making tough decisions about protecting species.

"There's nothing inappropriate about people higher up the chain of command supervising the work of people below them and reaching different scientific conclusions," said Hugh Vickery, an Interior Department spokesman.

"These (decisions) should get scrutiny. That's what they pay these folks for," he said. "The question at hand is, are they doing their job properly and in accordance with the law? The answer is yes. Does everyone like it? No. But they are doing it properly."

The results were released a day before Republican leaders in Congress, led by House Resources Chairman Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, were scheduled to announce their strategy to pass a major overhaul of the Endangered Species Act, which critics say is failing to save species from extinction.

Two senior House Democrats who oppose the proposed changes to the act sent a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Wednesday urging her to respond to the charges of political interference by agency officials.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service's credibility rests on its scientific integrity," wrote Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W. Va. "If political agendas are allowed to overrule science, that credibility will be compromised."

Forty-four percent of the scientists who responded to the survey said they have been asked by their superiors to avoid making findings that would require greater protection of endangered species.

One in five agency scientists reported being directed to alter or withhold technical information from scientific documents.

And more than half of the respondents -- 56 percent -- said agency officials have reversed or withdrawn scientific conclusions under pressure from industry groups.

The sponsors of the survey, who often have criticized President Bush's environmental policies, said the results are part of a broader effort by administration officials to mold scientific findings to support their policies.

Last week, the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the agency has failed to fully assess the health impacts of mercury pollution because political appointees have intervened and compromised scientific practices. EPA officials denied the charge.

"The political manipulation of science is an ongoing problem with this administration," said Lexi Shultz of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Nearly 30 percent of the Fish and Wildlife Service scientists queried responded to the survey -- a high rate, especially since several regional offices had urged employees not to reply. An official in the Great Lakes regional office asked the staff, in a memo, not to fill out the survey "in the office or from home."

Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Mitch Snow said officials in Washington had directed employees only to not answer any unauthorized surveys during working hours.
The written comments reflect a view shared by many agency scientists that politics have clouded decisions on whether to list species as endangered and designate areas of critical habitat.

One scientist from the Pacific region, which includes California and five other western states, reported being involved in two decisions to list species as endangered that were reversed, allegedly due to political pressure.

"Science was ignored -- and, worse, manipulated to build a bogus set of rationale for reversal of these listing decisions," the scientist wrote.

Another scientist from the Pacific region concluded: "I have never seen so many findings and recommendations by the field be turned around at the regional and Washington level. All we can do at the field level is ensure that our administrative record is complete and hope we get sued by an environmental or conservation organization."

The survey gave no specifics about which agency decisions were changed because of politics. The survey's sponsors said many scientists did not cite specific cases for fear they would be identified and would face retaliation for speaking out.

Sally Stefferud, a scientist who worked for 20 years at the agency before retiring three years ago, said that in the past political pressure affected only a few high-profile decisions but that now it is affecting almost all agency actions on endangered species.

Stefferud, who helped prepare the study, noted that field scientists in the Southwest region who study the impact of grazing on federal lands are now accompanied by the grazing permit holders, who she said are unlikely to show researchers any potential harm to endangered species.
"The data can become very easily distorted," Stefferud said.

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.

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This was in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on October 27th in the Political Insider column:

More mystery out of the 8th District race: The unauthorized premiere of "Dylan's Run" at the Westmoreland campaign office

Steve Johnson called Wednesday from California. He's a movie-maker. In 2002, he was the producer of an indy film that tracked the political prospects of a young, photogenic African-American seeking a congressional seat — as a Republican. That was in 1998 and 2000, during Dylan Glenn's two tries against Sanford Bishop down in south Georgia.

Through google.com, Johnson had just found out that — during the summer primary — Republican Lynn Westmoreland had grabbed frames from "Dylan's Run" and used them in a racially tinged attack ad.

Here's what's unusual: The documentary has never been seen publicly. Not in a movie house, not on cable TV, not through mail-order. Johnson said only 20 or so DVDs have been let out of his office, for film festival entries and such. "How [Westmoreland] got hold of one is beyond me," Johnson said.

Westmoreland doesn't strike us as the film-festival type. His campaign reports the DVD came to them through the mail — anonymously, we presume.

Johnson says he doesn't care how Westmoreland got a copy of the film. He's already summoned the lawyers. "The first thing we're going to do is figure out what we can do legally," he said.

I did a Google search on "Dylan's Run" the other day and found this column in the Atlanta paper. I had no idea this had happened. We're working on a response.


From the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Political Insider Column, Wednesday 8.04.04

Hide the children, and keep your finger on the remote. The finish to the 8thDistrict race is getting ugly.

God knows what's happening in the Republican run-off for the 8th District congressional seat. And it's safe to say He's not very happy.

The campaign of Dylan Glenn on Tuesday released a weekend poll of 400 voters that showed him leading Lynn Westmoreland 46 to 38 percent -- 35 to 25 percent among the most committed voters.

It's the reverse of a poll the Westmoreland campaign showed last week --which had Westmoreland over the 50 percent mark. Do remember that Glenn'scampaign peddled a poll before the July 20 that also had him ahead, but this one has Whit Ayres name on it, which is nothing to sneer at.

Another reason to take the Glenn poll seriously is the attack TV ad releasedTuesday by the Westmoreland campaign -- an ad harsh in both its content and racial imagery.

The ad refers to Glenn, an African-American, as a "political opportunist"who drained $100,000 from a charity he established. He then "abandoned the charity and skipped town," the ad states. In reality, he twice drew a$50,000 annual salary from the organization. And he left in 2001 for a WhiteHouse job with George W. Bush, Glenn's campaign argues. The charity was shutdown a year later.

But the most questionable portion of the 30-second spot are two separate images of Glenn, his head lolling on a stuffed chair, as the narrator recounts his losses in 1998 and 2000 congressional races in South Georgia.

Alice James, the Westmoreland campaign spokeswoman, said the images were drawn from an HBO documentary on Glenn, called "Dylan's Run." The two images were actual shots of Glenn reacting to his losses, she said.

Negative ads are usually a sign that a candidate lags in the polls. Not so in this case, James said. The Westmoreland ad is purely payback, for an attack ad that the Glenn campaign began running this week, implying that Westmoreland could be bought by lobbyists.

Dylan Glenn lost his latest attempt to win a congressional seat in Georgia to Lynn Westmoreland by 55% to 45% in a runoff on August 10th. Glenn lost big despite endorsements from virtually every major newspaper in the district, the backing of Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, Zell Miller, and a host of local politicians, including the third place finisher in the July 2oth primary.

Like his two earlier attempts for a House seat, which were captured in our documentary Dylan's Run, it's hard to believe that race did not play a role in the outcome.

So much for Jack Kemp's statement that Dylan was the GOP's Barak Obama.