Also covered here:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/pnw-snowpack/
The correct amount of decrease is 15-20%. The reason I would guess that Albright got canned was because he contradicted the state climatologist’s shady science and he snubbed Mayor Nickels by setting up a webpage “The Myth of the Vanishing Cascade Mountain Snowpack.” Mayor Nickels has a habit of getting back at people who snub him (like the recent strip club raids in Seattle).
It is important to realize that both Albright (0% loss) and the state climatologist Mote (50% loss) are wrong. Albright shouldn’t have been removed, but he shouldn’t be commended either because all he did was try to correct an error with an error. Mote should have been fired and removed from his position writing for the IPCC report because the 50% number is absurd.
Actually, now that I reread the reports, it appears that Mote was OK (he noted the error in the 50% report). I appears that the main factor for Albrights removal is probably Mayor Nickels who does not like to be corrected when he acts like a fool (he wrote a newspaper letter citing the 50% number).