SANTA FE – Federal agencies have filed opinions for national forests in New Mexico and Arizona and have asked a judge to dismiss the court’s previous ruling on timber management activities on Mexican spotted owl habitat land.

A U.S. district court in Arizona imposed a forest use injunction limiting timber activities such as tree-cutting, gathering fuel wood and controlled burns until effects on the threatened spotted owl species were determined, the Albuquerque Journal reported Friday.

The injunction was imposed in the Carson, Cibola, Gila, Lincoln and Sante Fe national forests in New Mexico and the Tonto National Forest in Arizona, officials said.

Federal and state lawmakers, firewood vendors, forest thinning contractors and more have objected to the ruling saying they rely on firewood to heat their homes in the winter.

Those opinions were filed Friday in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service claiming the conditions that necessitated the injunction are no longer present, officials said.

An environmental group that sued federal agencies for failure to monitor the bird populations has opposed the motion and believes the agencies should start over.