LARAMIE – Biodiversity Conservation Alliance yesterday filed a limited appeal of the newly revised Medicine Bow Forest Plan. The appeal recognizes that the new Plan moves forest management in the right direction, and supports many of the decisions in the new Plan, but seeks to correct a handful of deficiencies.

The appeal focuses on the new Plan’s failure to protect some rare types of wildlife, inadequate monitoring of “indicator species,” and errors the Forest Service made in calculating the maximum allowable timber cut.

“Instead of appealing the entire Plan, we focused our efforts on a handful of problems in the new Plan that need to be corrected,” said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “A win on these appeal points would result in an improved version of the Revised Plan, rather than getting rid of the new Plan and starting over.”

The appeal will be decided in Washington by Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth.