A mini-scandal has flared up at an Oregon university after professors tried to convince a prestigious scientific journal not to publish a graduate student’s research, according to a Portland news station, KATU. The station reported that professors at the School of Forestry at Oregon State University in Corvallis asked the journal Science to refrain from publishing the research, which conflicts with Bush administration policy on logging.

According to KATU, the research, by a grad student named Daniel Donato, showed that forests in Oregon recover better from wildfires if they are not logged, because logging can destroy seedlings and spread flammable tinder around the forest. The Bush administration’s policy advocates for accelerated logging after wildfires. The research focused on a fire that burned in 2002, called the Biscuit fire.

The journal Science is peer-reviewed, meaning outside scientists review each scientific paper before it is published. Donato’s research conflicted with earlier research by two OSU professors, who found that aggressive logging was the best way to regrow the Biscuit forest.

The dean of the forestry school wrote a letter to the university, saying the professors should have “expressed their criticism through open scientific debate,” KATU reported.

Photo credit: Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center