PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Environmental officials in Oregon are deciding whether to increase protections for a rare kind of seabird that nests far inland in old-growth forests.
The Oregon Commission on Fish and Wildlife is expected to vote Friday on whether to change the listing of the marbled murrelet to "endangered" from "threatened."
The species is already listed as endangered under federal law and in Washington state and California.
A coalition of environmental groups petitioned the commission to increase the bird's protected status in Oregon as well because of logging on state and private land that is threatening nesting sites in old-growth forests.
The unusual seabird forages in the ocean but flies up to 55 miles inland to lay a single egg in mossy depressions in forests that are more than a century old.
