Our federal forests provide a multitude of services for all Americans and support the nonhuman species that make up the web of life. Unchecked expansion of logging on these lands threatens our access to clean air, clean water, and the iconic recreational spaces that millions of Americans visit every year. President Trump’s executive order issued on March 1st, E.O. 14225, calls for increasing logging on our federal lands by 25%, ignoring the legal mandate from Congress to manage our public forests for multiple uses.
Meanwhile, the “Fix Our Forests Act,” which passed in the House and is currently in the Senate, would facilitate the E.O.’s push for a massive logging ramp-up. Send a message to your senators now, asking them to speak out against this harmful bill.
Trump’s E.O. 14225 is a directive to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service to log an annual target of 3.3 billion board feet. To make it happen, he is undermining the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA). NEPA, for example, guarantees that concerned members of the public and environmental organizations have a voice in and legal recourse regarding the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management’s plans for managing our forests. Minimizing public input via the NEPA process also affects hunting and fishing organizations’ ability to comment, along with other recreation and camping groups that have a stake in what happens on our federal forest lands.
Trump’s push to expand timber production targets older trees and the few old-growth forests left in the United States. Mature and old-growth (MOG) forests provide habitat for endangered species, mitigate climate change through the absorption and long-term storage of carbon, and protect vital watersheds that provide clean, cold water for healthy fish populations and human communities. Furthermore, Trump’s logging E.O. wants to bypass essential protections for endangered species, worsening the ongoing biodiversity crisis.
We have seen a dangerous narrative that erroneously says that logging is climate neutral. Big Timber would like us to believe that, but the industrial process of logging and wood products manufacturing emits major amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
More than ever before, this administration has made no effort to hide their attempts to prioritize logging for timber above all else. Disregarding best science, Trump’s administration has slashed Forest Service staffing on all levels, and instead is proposing that private contractors can buy their way out of complying with environmental laws. The protection of healthy, fire-resilient forests and support for fire-prepared safe communities is utterly disregarded in exchange for the chance to make some quick money with rampant logging. All of this is horrifying, but makes perfect sense in the context of the broader selling-out of our public lands they have been pushing across the board.
The “Fix Our Forests Act” would facilitate the E.O.’s push for logging, purportedly to address wildfire risk. It would enable “categorical exclusions” that bypass important public processes under NEPA for project areas up to 10,000 acres, reduce the statute of limitations for court challenges to harmful logging proposals from 6 years to 150 days, and remove the requirement that the Forest Service consult with Fish and Wildlife on Endangered Species. FOFA pushes the myth that logging will lessen severe forest fires, but science shows that severe fires are often exacerbated through such unsound means.
Take Action: Send a message to your Senators telling them to stand up for our forests by opposing the very harmful “Fix Our Forests” Act and pushing back against Trump's Executive Order 14225, which fast-tracks logging on our public lands. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has spoken out publicly against this misguided bill. We hope Senator Jeff Merkley will follow suit.
Phone calls are powerful! Call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-866-943-8027 to be connected to your senators’ offices.
>> Add Your Voice - Take Action Now <<
To learn more about the Oregon Chapter’s Forest Team or how to get involved in regional efforts to defend Pacific Northwest public lands, email illinoisvalley@oregon.sierraclub.org.