WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish environment activists say Europe's last pristine forest and its rare animal species are in danger because the government is allowing too many trees to be cut down.
Forest and bird experts said Wednesday that despite earlier protests too many old trees are being felled in the Bialowieza forest in eastern Poland — causing populations of rare birds there to shrink rapidly.
State forestry spokeswoman Anna Malinowska rejected the criticism.
The more than 140,000-hectare (345,000-acre) Bialowieza forest shared between Poland and Belarus is the last stretch of a pristine forest that once covered Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains.
