Editor's note: We are continuing to work on this story, focusing in particular on the location of the property in relation to the Yolo Bypass

MacDonald's husband disputes Contra Costa Times account

May 25, 2007 -- Charles MacDonald, husband of former deputy assistant secretary Julie MacDonald, doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

Reached Monday at the family's Yolo County ranch, the day after an article in the Contra Costa Times said the MacDonalds stood to benefit from the splittail's delisting, MacDonald was puzzled.

"I don't know what all the ruckus is about," he told Endangered Species & Wetlands Report. The Times reported that the splittail "is more dependent on floodplains than any other fish in the Delta. And the Yolo Bypass is the last big floodplain in the Central Valley." But "we're not in the bypass," MacDonald said. He disputed the characterization of the land as important habitat for the splittail.

"We're at the outside edge of a 100-year floodplain," he said.

Since MacDonald had not seen the Contra Costa Times article, this reporter read it to him. After hearing the paragraph that said financial disclosure reports showed the farm to be worth in excess of $1 million, and that Julie MacDonald receives "$100,000 to $1 million a year in income from it," he said, "That's bullshit."

But what about the DOI financial disclosure forms, presumably filled out by Julie MacDonald? "I'm sure she didn't [fill that information in]," MacDonald said.

Renting the land wouldn't bring in that kind of money, he said. The latest Yolo County property tax bill pegs the ranch's value at about $650,000. The 1990 sale price is listed at $180,000, according to public records.

MacDonald said they grow alfalfa on the property, and he has a custom slaughterhouse.

"We're local people," he said.

Copyright Endangered Species & Wetlands Report 2007