Albuquerque, N.M. • The U.S. Forest Service wants a federal judge to reconsider an order that halted tree-cutting across thousands of square miles of forest in the Southwest, saying efforts to address wildfire threats are hanging in the balance.
The order was issued last month in a 2013 case that alleged the agency failed to consider the effects of thinning and logging on the threatened Mexican spotted owl and its habitat.
Environmentalists say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service have failed over the years to track the bird's numbers.