Judge stops logging projects, says species surveys required

A federal judge this week halted more than 140 logging projects on public land in the Northwest -- about three-quarters of them in Oregon -- after concluding that the Bush administration illegally stopped checking for sensitive species before letting the cutting proceed.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle directed the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reinstate the surveys for plants and wildlife species tied to old-growth forests.

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