Federal cattle grazing analysis called whitewash / Bush administration altered key sections to justify easing rules, 2 retired scientists say

Federal cattle grazing analysis called whitewash / Bush administration altered key sections to justify easing rules, 2 retired scientists say: "The original draft of the environmental analysis warned that the new rules would have a 'significant adverse impact' on wildlife, but that phrase was removed. The BLM now concludes that the grazing regulations are 'beneficial to animals.'
Eliminated from the final draft was another conclusion that read: 'The Proposed Action will have a slow, long-term adverse impact on wildlife and biological diversity in general.' Also removed was language saying how the rules changes could harm endangered species.
'This is a whitewash -- they took all of our science and reversed it 180 degrees,' said Erick Campbell, a former BLM state biologist in Nevada and a 30-year BLM employee who retired this year. Campbell was the author of sections of the report pertaining to impacts on wildlife and threatened and endangered species.
'They rewrote everything,' he said in an interview this week. 'It's a crime.'
Former BLM hydrologist Bill Brookes, who assessed the regulations' impact on water resources, said in the original draft that the proposed rule change was 'an abrogation of (BLM's) responsibility under the Clean Water Act.'
'Everything I wrote was totally rewritten and watered down,' Brookes said in an interview Thursday."