The Bush Administration has asked for advance notice of which U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and officials can speak to climate change, polar bears and sea ice retreat when traveling to conferences and meetings in Northern countries like Russia, Canada and Norway.

polar_bear_scott_schliebe_usfws.jpg
Scott Schliebe / USFWS

Travel requests must now be accompanied by a memo from the regional director that spells out who will be the official spokesperson — and offer an official assurance that “these individuals understand the Administration’s position on these issues.”


Some agency people have likened the policy to a “gag order,” and an environmental group that has sued the government over polar bear protections called it “Orwellian.”

The agency didn’t see the memos in such a sinister light. The New York Times quoted Bruce Woods, the agency spokesman in Alaska:

“The cover memo makes it clear nobody is being told they can’t talk about these issues,” Mr. Woods said. “What the administration wants to know is who is going to be spokesperson and do they understand administration policy? It’s not saying you won’t talk about it.”

Setting any limit on dialogue seems particularly unfortunate this winter, since the agency is now on a mission to gather as much of the best scientific information on polar bears and sea ice decline as possible.

The agency is taking comments through April 9 on a proposal to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to the decline in sea ice habitat in response to climate change across the Arctic. Through last week, the agency had received more than 300,000 comments.

Deborah Williams, an Anchorage-based conservationist who forwarded electronic copies of memo, told the New York Times it sounded like a “Soviet-style directive.”

“Needless to say, we never would have allowed a memo like this to go out in the Clinton Administration,” added Williams, the advisor for Alaska affairs in Clinton’s Interior Department, in an email message.

Here’s a copy of the memos in question:

03/02/2007 08:25 AM

To FW7 All Users

cc
Subject Foreign Travel – New Requirement – Please Review and Comply

Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and
any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate
change, sea ice, and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the
Regional Director to the Director indicating who’ll be the official
spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues,
particularly polar bears, including a statement of assurance that these
individuals understand the Administration’s position on these issues.

Below are copies of two memorandums we recently prepared. The first example
(FT Hohn) would be an example you could use for someone traveling to a
region where these items could be a potential discussion item. The second
example (ftapprovalperham.PDF) is an example of a justification we recently
prepared where the traveler who will specifically be dealing with these
issues. Please note you will need these memo’s/justifications for all trips
to areas where these could be discussion items (i.e. Canada, Russia, Norway,
any northern country).

Please ensure any foreign travel requests coming forward that pertain to
these issues, or traveling to these potential areas, have this memorandum
in the package. Thanks!