71.   The areas are prime habitat for threatened species like the spotted owl and marbled murrelet.

72.   The case is the continuation of a series of legal challenges to logging to protect the northern spotted owl, which is listed as threatened under federal law.

73.   The case centered on much-publicized efforts by the Interior Department to restrict logging in Oregon that would damage the forest home of the threatened spotted owl.

74.   The company has since closed the timber mill, blaming reductions in logging caused by efforts to protect the Mexican spotted owl.

75.   The cost of protecting the spotted owl and other species has been high.

76.   The decision is a setback for the logging industry in its bitter battle over habitat for the northern spotted owl.

77.   The fire threatened the habitat of the northern spotted owl, officials said, as well as the watershed from which Ashland gets its water.

78.   The group has considered such a request only three times before, in cases involving the whooping crane, the snail darter and the spotted owl.

79.   The governor said he has ordered state forestry officials to help their federal counterparts speed their study of the effect of logging on the spotted owl.

80.   The more sparred owls interbreed with spotted owls, the fewer offspring of the future will be pure spotted owls.