Forest Service Admits Logging Mistake

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 25, 2005

Filed at 7:46 a.m. ET

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- The Forest Service admitted Wednesday to making a ''serious'' mistake that allowed the logging of 17 acres inside a rare tree reserve as part of the salvage harvest of timber burned by a fire in 2002.

The logging inside the 350-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, created in 1966 to protect Brewer spruce and other rare plant species in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, was discovered last week by environmentalists after the timber was harvested and a forest closure intended to bar protesters was lifted.