Noah Greenwald is a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and authored petitions to protect the roundtail chub and Mexican garter snake as endangered species.

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Political interference in decisions concerning Arizona endangered species is a continuing problem.

Over the past four years, a high-level political appointee in the U.S. Department of Interior named Julie MacDonald, who until recently was deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks and is an engineer with no training in biology, used her position to aggressively squelch protection of endangered species, rewrite scientific reports, browbeat agency scientists and collude with industry lawyers.

In particular, MacDonald used her position to deny species protection as threatened or endangered and to limit designation of critical habitat for already protected species. Rather than follow science, MacDonald denied species protection to garner favor with the oil and gas, livestock, logging and other extractive industries.

In response to investigations, congressional hearings and outcry from the public, MacDonald recently resigned. She leaves behind, however, a legacy of bad decisions, including many involving Arizona endangered species. Late last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that eight of the decisions MacDonald was involved with would be reconsidered, including designation of critical habitat for the Southwestern willow flycatcher.

Although an admission by the agency that past decisions have been tainted is welcome, reconsideration of a mere eight of the more than 200 decisions MacDonald was involved in is woefully inadequate and excludes several bad decisions involving Arizona's most endangered species, including those in Southern Arizona.

One of these species is the Mexican garter snake, which was once a common denizen of Arizona's rivers and streams but today has been lost from 90 percent of its historic range in Arizona. A memo from the regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that MacDonald was involved in reversing agency scientists, who concluded the snake warranted protection as an endangered species, stating: "It is clear from the administrative record that the DAS [Deputy Assistant Secretary] was involved in changes to drafts of the finding and that the determination was changed to being not warranted."

Despite this admission, the decision to deny the Mexican garter snake protection was not one of the eight to be reconsidered. Other decisions involving Arizona endangered species tainted by MacDonald's influence and excluded from reconsideration include a drastic reduction in critical habitat for two Arizona fish species — the loach minnow and the spikedace — and decisions to not protect as endangered species the Southwestern bald eagle, roundtail chub, greater sage grouse and Gunnison's prairie dog.

When Congress wrote the Endangered Species Act, it required decisions about endangered species to be based solely on the best available science. The ultimate survival of some of the nation's most emblematic wildlife species might have been sacrificed otherwise.

Embattled wildlife like the Mexican garter snake are owed a fair shake. A transparent review of all decisions tainted by MacDonald's political shenanigans is needed, as is a fix to bigger problems in implementation of the nation's endangered species program.

MacDonald is not the only or the first political appointee to interfere in decisions involving the survival of the nation's wildlife. Government scientists must be allowed to do their jobs without fear of reprisal from high-level political appointees. Although having an executive branch with less scorn for science and the environment would help, this alone may not be enough. For this reason, Congress should pass legislation now being considered to protect scientific integrity.