Groups challenge new Sierra logging rules Environmental groups accused the Bush administration in a lawsuit Tuesday of changing the rules for protection of threatened wildlife to promote logging in national forests that cover nearly 10 million acres in the Sierra. Four conservation groups asked a federal judge in San Francisco to overturn a U.S. Forest Service decision in December that scaled back the agency's duty to monitor and protect designated species. The animals and plants are considered "indicator species" that reflect the overall health of the forest. By law, the Forest Service must study the populations of each species and set goals to maintain the creatures and their habitats before considering tree cutting and road building in 10 national forests in the Sierra. The new rules reduce the number of species to be monitored from 60 to 13 and allow the Forest Service to approve logging before studying any indicator species in the area, the suit said. Among those eliminated from the indicator list, environmental groups said, were the bighorn sheep, the Northern goshawk and the endangered California condor....