Conservation group appeals

logging for beetles decision

RAWLINS - A conservation group has appealed the U.S. Forest Service's decision to permit logging as a way to minimize the spread of bark beetles in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

Medicine Bow Supervisor Mary Peterson has 45 days to respond to the appeal filed by Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

The Forest Service decided in January to allow cutting 2,648 acres of trees in order to protect potential habitat for lynx and boreal toad populations.

The logging plan includes removing mature spruce in the Silver Lake Campground, which has been closed for two years because of heavy beetle infestation, if the trees are found to be at high risk of infestation or infirmity. Salvage cuts are also planned around the Brush Creek Visitors Center and campground.

Jeremy Nichols, a representative of the conservation group, said Biodiversity appealed the decision because the Forest Service would violate its own standards for how much clear-cut logging should occur in the North Fork of the French Creek drainage if the project proceeds.

"We think the Forest Service is not being entirely honest here. This is just another excuse for a timber sale in the Medicine Bow," Nichols said.

Nichols said the beetles should be allowed to do their natural job of infesting old and diseased trees. Once the beetle epidemic has run its course, the resulting new habitat could be valuable for scarce and sensitive species such as three-toed woodpeckers, pine martens, goshawks and other birds, he said.

In addition, Biodiversity believes the fears that beetles could kill thousands of acres of spruce and lodgepole pine trees are exaggerated, Nichols said.