[at-l] The Real Truth About "Lynxgate"

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

I would like to just offer this observation:  It is useful to me to
consider stories like the Lynx hair bit, and the ESA/forest fire
fighters bit as a kind of ink blot test.  We all WANT to believe some
things more than others, depending on a complex array of factors, not
the least of which are our own personal experiences, our own political
views and our own, very personal, views on that
impossible-to-define-but-everybody-knows-what-it-means term we call "the
environment."

For myself, I have no idea what the truth is re either story, and I have
absolutely know way of knowing what sources to "trust" either. 
Unfortunately, that is one of the lessons of "growing up" - learning
that there are MANY "news sources" that are impossible to verify; that
the internet has exacerbated this problem many-fold; and that, in the
end, there is precious little on these specific subjects that ANY of us
can ever really "know."  That does not mean we all stop thinking, or
forming opinions, or even taking sides, but instead that we perhaps
approach such stories, and - more importantly - the underlying issues
they represent with both a bit more caution/humility, and a LOT more
effort at critical thinking and fact-finding.  In the end, there are
often few easy answers, and a lot more effort involved in getting to any
verifiable answers! :)

Hiking, and thinking, on!

Thru-Thinker

RoksnRoots@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/28/2002 7:06:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jbkramer@afn.org writes:
> 
> > The USFS fabricated data just like the Lynx study.
> 
>       Ah not so fast. If you read the article, it turned out that the Lynx
> surveyors were wrongfully accused for political purposes. What happened was
> strictly an internal survey matter that was deliberately misconstrued and
> sold as an intentional falsification when it really wasn't. It turns out that
> the Lynx surveyors were getting false positives from their hair traps and
> wanted to test the devices to see how accurate they were. They planted cat
> and other hair on some traps to see if the labs would return them as positive
> Lynx hairs. All completely innocently done. Word got out of this otherwise
> routine test and was used for political purposes to slander
> environmentalists. See the "Outside Magazine" article detailing it all...
> 
>     I'm sure there are many out there still referring to the great "Lynx
> fraud"...
> 
> 
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