Trump Issues Executive Order to Increase Logging on Federal Lands

On December 21 — the Friday before Christmas and on the eve of the government shutdown — President Trump signed an order to increase commercial logging on federal lands under the guise of wildfire prevention.

Executive Order 18355 directs the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to increase timber production on national forests and other federal lands. Specifically, the order tasks the Forest Service with selling at least 3.8 billion board feet of timber across 3.5 million acres of national forest lands and the Department of the Interior with selling 600 million board feet of timber across 750,000 acres of lands. The order would result in a 31% increase in logging on national forests lands since 2017.

Much of this type of logging would be done through commercial means, with the agencies offering timber sales to private companies. Though the price of sawtimber varies by tree type and economic conditions, overall this executive order would likely line the pockets of the timber industry with more than $2 billion from lumber harvesting on public land.

The order is a another step among many the administration has taken during the last two years to increase opportunities for extractive industries to operate on public lands. In the Los Padres National Forest, a commercial logging project was approved by the Trump administration near Mt. Pinos without preparation of an environmental assessment. This was the first commercial logging project approved in the national forest in decades. The new executive order directs the agencies to fast-track consultation with wildlife biologists and to use “categorical exclusions” to bypass environmental review, effectively overriding standard requirements of bedrock laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. This would also limit the public’s opportunity to provide input and oversight on logging projects. Additionally, the order calls for new environmental review loopholes to be created.

“We’ve seen this administration use wildfire as an excuse to open up our national forests to commercial logging before and this is just more of the same,” said Bryant Baker, ForestWatch’s Conservation Director. “Instead of forest raking and bypassing environmental laws, our communities are best protected through sound science, better planning, and a strong focus on making structures fire-safe.”

Wildfire scientists have long stated that resources should be devoted to retrofitting existing homes in the wildland-urban interface with fire-safe materials, creating and maintaining smart defensible space immediately around structures, reducing new development in fire-prone areas, and reducing the risk of human-caused ignitions.

The executive order also directs the land management agencies to consider commercial biomass opportunities when preparing timber sales. In recent years, the biomass industry has touted wood-burning as a “cleaner” form of energy production despite many scientific studies disputing the claim. Biomass incineration contributes greenhouse emissions and reduces carbon sequestration capacity of forests.

For now, Trump’s executive order highlights the need for scientists and conservation groups to carefully scrutinize any future logging proposals on public lands. With the first logging project already approved in the Los Padres, we can expect to see even more following this new directive. ForestWatch will continue to oppose commercial logging in the Los Padres National Forest and advocate for science-based wildfire mitigation strategies that will more effectively protect communities throughout the region.

About Bryant Baker

Bryant is the Director of Conservation & Research for Los Padres ForestWatch, where he manages scientific, technical, and volunteer projects. He is also a naturalist and photographer, spending most of his free time hiking the rugged public lands of the Central Coast region with his dog.
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