NATION IN BRIEF : PACIFIC NORTHWEST : Old Forests Would Be Saved Under Plan

A top U.S. Forest Service official, Associate Chief George M. Leonard, said his agency has adopted a policy for managing forests that would lead to the preservation of about half of the old-growth forest lands that are unprotected. But environmentalists questioned whether the policy is specific enough to have a serious impact on timber sales in the old-growth forests, areas where rare species such as the spotted owl thrive in centuries-old habitats. The Wilderness Society estimates there are 2.4 million acres of old-growth in the Pacific Northwest, of which 1.6 million acres are not protected from clear-cutting.