Douglas Parker

Douglas Parker was an employee of the U.S. Forest Service for nearly four decades, fired in late 2005 after filing a whistleblower complaint "that pointed to what he called a 'systemic problem' when it comes to proper pesticide use across several forests in New Mexico and Arizona," reported the Associated Press. Parker told AP, "The whole reason behind this is I reported some significant pesticide misuse problems to the regional forester and they don't want to have controls over this process. ... They want to be pesticide cowboys and go out there and do what they want to do without consideration of compliance with their own policies, regulations and environmental laws." His Forest Service supervisor contended that Parker was fired for violations of office protocols.