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35 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, December 16, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 22, 2004 Ken Goddard, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, holds a Cayman crocodile trophy next to one that was made into a handbag, both examples of illegal specimens sent to the lab. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli ‘CSI’ gone wild: Forensic scientists gather in Ashland By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune ASHLAND — In a scene reminiscent of a "CSI" reunion, forensic scientists will gather in this small town Monday to pore over old bones, hair samples and blood stains. But it won’t be a crime scene investigation: These are experts who will be attending the fall meeting of the Northwest Association of Forensic Scientists hosted by the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory. About 100 forensic scientists are expected for the weeklong conference, which will include workshops on everything from feather identification to differentiating between human and animal bone. "We’ll pretty much be getting all the people involved in wildlife forensics from around the world here," said director Ken Goddard. Advertisement "Sadly, there aren’t many." In fact, the laboratory is the only one of its kind on the planet. Staff members, who receive samples from 162 countries, periodically are called upon to testify in court cases worldwide. "The meeting itself will include both wildlife and police (forensic scientists)," Goddard said. "We’re going to use the opportunity to teach what we do at police crime labs but we’re also bringing together everybody we can get our hands on who does wildlife forensic work." The two fields are similar in many respects, he said. "The difference is that our victim is an animal," he said. "But we use the same type of technology." The conference will give the forensic scientists a chance to exchange ideas and approaches, Goddard said. There are nearly two dozen forensic scientists among the 35 people working in the lab, along with many volunteers from the community. "That’s not very many people to deal with every wildlife problem in the world," he said. "We need to be engaged with other experts." Forensic scientist Ed Espinoza, the lab's deputy director, said the conference will allow the staff to talk shop with like-minded experts. "We’ll be looking at how we can meet the challenges of good science within the forensic context," he added. "How do we use good science and fit it into this forensic box? They tend to be two different boxes." The television program "CSI" has increased the awareness of forensic science, he said, although noting he doesn’t watch the program. "Most people erroneously think that forensic science is a better science," Espinoza said. "But forensics is really applying a scientific problem to a legal problem. It’s marrying these two boxes together so that the product does not incriminate someone who is innocent or exculpate someone who is guilty." The workshops will cover analytical challenges such as identifying hair, feathers and bones. For instance, Pepper Trail, an ornithologist in the morphology department, which is responsible for all mammal, bird and reptile identification at the lab, will conduct a workshop of identifying eagle feathers. "That’s something that law enforcement folks are often called upon to try to identify," Trail explained. "There are a lot of fakes out there. These are turkey feathers dyed and trimmed to look like eagle feathers. "The object of the workshop is to provide a little training so they can see some simple characteristics they can use," he added. Built in 1989, the forensics lab has plenty of samples to compare characteristics, from an elephant’s foot to a Bengal tiger fur rug. To make room at the facility, some 300,000 items seized as evidence over the years were sent to be stored at Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado. Charged with taking on those who would profit from the illegal killing and selling of wildlife worldwide, the lab has a huge databank of blood tissue and DNA samples. It also has state-of-the-art computers and robotics to sample blood and tissues. But Goddard said human experts are indispensable to wildlife forensics. He demonstrated by picking up a purse made from a small reptile. Its head and legs were still attached. "It’s obvious, at least to a herpetologist, that this is a Cayman crocodile because of species-defining characteristics — the head, the claws, scale patterns and things like that," he said. He picked up another purse which contained only the skin of a reptile. Yet experts at the lab have identified it as Cayman crocodile skin, thanks to their research and expertise, he said. "In human cases, you know you’ve got a human," he said of a homicide. "In our case, we start out not knowing who the victim is, and that makes a difference in what charges will be filed." The first purse is worth about $75; the second one about $4,000, he said. "We have to do a tremendous amount of research before we can start working like a regular police crime lab," he said. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities