Embattled Interior official quits

WASHINGTON — A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department recently rebuked for altering scientific conclusions to reduce protections for imperiled species has resigned, officials said Tuesday.

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, had been criticized by Interior's inspector general, and Congress was preparing to scrutinize her performance in a hearing.

Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation, delivered in a letter late Monday. Her departure comes as the agency was discussing plans to demote her, said a person in the agency familiar with the matter. Vickery declined to comment on that possibility.

Reached at her home, MacDonald said that she resigned for personal reasons, including an illness in her family, and that "I have nothing but respect for people at the department."

She would not comment on whether potential disciplinary action influenced her decision.

MacDonald was involved in several controversial decisions on issues affecting endangered Northwest species.

Most recently, she was part of a group of Bush political appointees who ordered a rewrite of plans to protect the northern spotted owl.

Some of the people who helped draft the original plan protested the changes, saying it could open the door to more old-growth logging.

MacDonald also forced a reduction of more than 80 percent of protected habitat for endangered bull trout in southern Oregon's Klamath Basin, according to a recent investigation by the Interior Department's inspector general.

An Interior Department attorney also told the inspector general that she had pressured Fish and Wildlife Service officials to shrink habitat protections for bull trout by 90 percent in the entire Columbia and Klamath river basins.

Environmental groups late last year documented a pitched battle between MacDonald and Fish and Wildlife employees over whether to safeguard plants and animals from oil and gas drilling, power lines and real-estate development.

In March, Inspector General Earl Devaney referred MacDonald's case to top Interior officials for possible administrative action.

In an investigation, Devaney's office found that MacDonald, who has a degree in civil engineering and no formal training in natural sciences, repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats."

Material from the Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times staff reporter Warren Cornwall is included in this report.