The federal government.

The federal government promised in November to conduct searches for rare plants and animals before logging public lands, according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report. The announcement follows a recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer barring 34 timber sales in Washington state and Northern California because the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management failed to survey for rare species in those forests. In that case Judge Dwyer said the government had acted "contrary to the plain language" of the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan, which calls for such surveys, the story said.