Alva Review-Courier -

TAOS, N.M. (AP) — A tree to be displayed outside the U.S. Capitol building over the holidays is supposed to come from a northern New Mexico forest.

That’s if the U.S. Forest Service can get an exception from a tree-cutting ban across all New Mexico national forests and one in Arizona.

A federal judge says people can cut firewood for personal use, but sidelined all other timber management activities.

The ban came in a 2013 lawsuit that environmentalists filed against the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accusing them of failing to track the threatened Mexican spotted owl f...