(Continued from page 17)

logging of burned areas, which is the preferred habitat of this species."
• Duane Short, director of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance's wild species program in Laramie, Wyo., said the Forest Service has ignored science that shows stepped-up logging of beetle-killed trees in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills disrupts the ecosystem without successfully slowing the spread of the mountain pine beetle.
• "They have literally thumbed their nose at the laws and the science," Short said Wednesday from Colorado. "Ecosystem management is almost non-existent. They are trying to turn the forest into a tree farm and they are not considering the aftereffects."
• Forest Service officials declined to comment and referred questions to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service will have 90 days to determine if there is substantial reason to believe a listing may be warranted, said Robert Moler, an agency spokesman in Sacramento. If so, an additional yearlong review would determine whether to list the bird as threatened or endangered.
• The Forest Service considers the black-backed woodpecker an indicator species for the overall health of forest habitat recently

(Continued on page 19)