Fired Fla. biologist awaits new US post

MIAMI -- Andy Eller, a fired federal biologist who became a hero -- and for a time, a martyr -- of the environmental movement, is expecting to hear within the next week or so where his new government posting will be.

Eller is waiting for the news in a North Carolina mountain cabin, his refuge during a protracted clash with his bosses at the US Fish and Wildlife Service that raised questions about the agency's scientific integrity.

His vindication was sealed June 29 when the agency agreed to reinstate his employment with the government -- nearly eight months after firing him -- on the eve of a hearing by the Merit Systems Protection Board on the challenge of his dismissal.

By then, Eller's life was coming apart. He had no job, little money, and bleak prospects. He had given up his apartment in Vero Beach, Fla., where his battles over protection of the endangered Florida panther reached an apex, and accepted a rent-free caretaker's job in North Carolina.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed because of a confidentiality agreement. But Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Washington-based group that represented Eller, called the deal ''a message that there's hope" for government whistle-blowers.

Eller was at war with his superiors for years over his accusations that the agency intentionally relied on flawed scientific findings to give developers construction permits in stretches of southwestern Florida favored by Florida panthers. He was fired in November after 18 years with the agency. His supervisors said he was dismissed because he was slow completing projects; Eller accused the agency of trying to silence him.

Fish and Wildlife has acknowledged that some of Eller's criticisms were correct, after reviewing his complaints about the agency's incorrect assertions that the panther could survive on small tracts of undeveloped land.