Court puts Yellowstone deal on hold.A federal judge has suspended an unprecedented contract between Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park, 2,219,791 acres (899,015 hectares), the world's first national park (est. 1872), NW Wyo., extending into Montana and Idaho. It lies mainly on a broad plateau in the Rocky Mts., on the Continental Divide, c. and a biotechnology firm. Two years ago, the park had agreed to give Diversa Corp. of San Diego the right to collect water and soil samples for research into extremophiles, microorganisms that thrive in harsh environments. In return for this bioprospecting right, Diversa would pay Yellowstone $175,000 over 5 years and share up to 10 percent of the profits from any products--such as heat-resistant enzymes--that resulted from the research. Last year, public-interest groups filed a suit against the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service alleging that the agreement was a hasty, backdoor See trapdoor. deal (SN: 5/9/98, p. 297). On March 24, Judge Royce C. Lamberth Royce C. Lamberth (born 1943) is a judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Lamberth was born in 1943 in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas and from the University of Texas School of Law, receiving an LL.B. in 1967. of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). agreed, ruling that the park service must study the environmental impact of the contract since it represents "a dramatic change" from normal policy. |
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