But that team sought advice from time to time from Bob Bilby, a Seattle-based fisheries service scientist. Bilby's involvement raises red flags among Forests and Fish Plan critics, who note that Bilby worked for Weyerhaeuser before joining the government team and went back to the timber industry giant shortly after the plan was done. They're the ones who carried the ball. I was strictly in a technical assistance role. The only way I could have influenced policy was through the analysis of data.
Environmentalists remember it differently.
They always pointed to Bob Bilby as their science guy and the one who gave the OK to Forests and Fish. Records show Bilby produced at least five documents used in reaching the deal, most in the crucial final half-year of the talks. Although Bilby said he supports the agreement, he acknowledged that scientists just aren't sure how well some aspects of the plan will work. A scientist working under Bilby echoed the concerns of some others when he wrote to Turner via e-mail a few weeks after the deal received legislative approval. Turner, the e-mails show, did not return Pollock's calls.