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some other unlogged areas they could fly to as long as the nest core area was protected, but if that's gone, the chicks would just starve to death," said Rachel Fazio, a lawyer for the group who argued their case last May 14 before a three-judge panel at the federal appellate court in San Francisco.
• Fazio said it is ironic that the Forest Service and the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science are co-hosting the third annual Lake Tahoe Bird Festival on Saturday at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center just a few miles from the woodpeckers' nest.
• "We confirmed the nest

tree and the birds were there on Monday but I don't know if they'll be there next Monday," she told AP. "It's one of the rarest birds in the Sierra Nevada. We can't have logging activities which basically kill off the next generation. It seems like this should be a no-brainer."
• Forest Service spokeswoman Cheva Heck said Thursday they still were examining potential alternatives but had no immediate response to the request for delay.
• "As managers of public lands, we have the responsibility of balancing multiple priorities. We are still researching each of our options before deciding the most effective way to proceed," Heck said in an e-mail to AP.
• Fazio notified Justice Department lawyers representing the Forest Service in the 9th Circuit case on May 24 that they had spotted two pairs of black-backed woodpeckers in an area slated for logging. She said additional observations would be necessary to confirm nesting but requested in the meantime that USFS delay operations in the area until nesting season is over.
• Justice Department lawyers told Fazio in an e-mail May 25 the agency's normal

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