Blog: a web log
02/04/2004: "Salvage Logging Blocked In Wildfire Burn Area"
DURANGO, Colo. -- A federal judge blocked a logging project on land burned by the devastating Missionary Ridge wildfire after a conservation group said the Forest Service failed to do a wildlife count as required by law.
A timber industry official said the decision effectively kills the plan because the fire-killed aspen, spruce, fir and ponderosa pine would be valueless by the time the objections are resolved.
Colorado Wild, a nonprofit conservation group in Durango, filed a lawsuit in December saying the Forest Service had not properly accounted for population trends in key wildlife species, including the Abert's squirrel, the American marten and four types of birds. Full Story
