YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — To park officials, the offer from Diversa Corp. seemed fair and right.
After all, if the California biotechnology company could potentially make millions from its research in Yellowstone National Park, why shouldn't the park--and the public to whom it's beholden--share in the profits?
But the offer and the contract Yellowstone and Diversa eventually signed caused a furor among environmentalists and others, who say it amounts to selling off a national treasure to private companies.
Perhaps more troubling to them, though, was the way in which the agreement was reached--secretly, and without public disclosure of its terms.
"This seems to me an end run around the right of the American people to know how their property is disposed of, and under what conditions, and by whom, and for what reason," said Beth Burrows, of the Edmonds Institute, a Washington state public interest group.
The lawsuit her group and others filed three years ago has left such agreements with national parks on hold. It also has left questions about the role of the parks and how to uphold their missions.
Scientists for decades have used the unique natural wonders of national parks for research. In Yellowstone, they come to examine such features as thermal pools, which can hold unusual bacteria and organisms. Some scientists search for keys to new cancer medication, while others hunt for enzymes that might break down radioactive waste.
A few are called "bio-prospectors"--scientists who search specifically for substances that may lead to commercially valuable products. But neither they nor the companies for whom they work have paid to use the park's resources, nor have they shared profits from products that originated from research within the parks.
At least 18 patents have resulted from research at Yellowstone, park officials say.
An enzyme called Taq polymerase was developed from a microbial species discovered in Yellowstone that proved critical to replicating DNA. The patent was sold in 1991 to Switzerland-based F. Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. Court documents filed in the lawsuit against the park contend the patent for Taq polymerase generates about $100 million a year for F. Hoffmann-LaRoche. The company would not confirm that.
