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Unfortunately, a forester or biologist always takes a backseat in a room full of enviro and agency lawyers.

Well of course they do, they are bureaucrats. Good government employees don't rock the boat.

Sorry for my delayed reply but I was unable to get into FR yesterday. Although some certainly do exists, the word bureacrat may be a poor word to apply to government biologists. Most biologists spend their careers speaking out. I've seen some who spoke out too loudly end up just walking off the job. Others were shuffled to supply room offices, transferred out of State or just hounded out of the Service. In government, as in industry, scientists typically work under lawyers. It's very difficult to rock a boat when you are ballast. I'm not sure I would want to see this situation reversed though. Government biologists typically are not very people-oriented and can easily tick off 90 to 100% of any assemblage of people. True bureacrats have the ability to have at least 51% of that same body nodding their head in anticipation of having it lobbed off. In short, the word bureacrat is difficult to apply to most government biologists.

Muleteam1