Gabby Kientzle, gabby.kientzle@sierraclub.org
Washington, D.C. – President Trump issued an executive order this weekend seeking to ramp up logging across federal forests, which span nearly 280 million acres. The order seeks to increase timber production, erode Endangered Species Act protections to speed approval of timber sales, and raise the target for timber offered for sale annually, among other measures that could result in widespread devastation of national forests. Amid mass firings affecting public lands staff, scientists, firefighters, and first responders, Trump is now taking aim at our federal forests to line the pockets of timber industry executives.
Our federal forests belong to all of us and are required by law to be managed in ways that benefit all Americans. Left standing, mature trees and old-growth forests provide clean air and water, opportunities for recreation, habitat for wildlife, and help to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Our biggest, oldest trees are also the most resilient to the impacts of wildfire, with their thick protective bark and higher canopies, but these trees are also the most valuable to logging companies. Trump has once again prioritized making a buck off our shared resources rather than protecting some of our best - and most cost effective - natural climate solutions.
In response to the executive order, members of the Climate Forests Coalition issued the following statement:
“This executive order will decimate our federal forests. It will use tax dollars to line the pockets of corporate logging interests, undermine environmental laws, and take public forests out of public hands. This directive is part of a pattern to undermine science, gut the federal workforce, and privatize our public lands. Clearcutting our public lands for private profit will destroy mature and old-growth forests, pollute our air and water, and in bypassing the Endangered Species Act, actively drive vulnerable wildlife to extinction.”
The order is being introduced just after a timber industry executive was appointed as the new Forest Service Chief and the administration is recklessly cutting thousands of public service jobs from federal agencies who manage our forests, including wildland firefighters. The order is a disingenuous effort to shift management of our public lands from the public to private companies focused on exploiting natural resources at the expense of communities, wildlife, and clean water. Privatizing management of our public lands will increase the risk of wildfire, exacerbate the climate crisis, and lead to the extinction of species that depend on these ecosystems.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.