The Plunder of our Public Lands

by Tina Tyler, staff writer for Clallam Democrats Rising

With the daily onslaught of the Trump regime’s decimation of federal programs, agencies, and employees, it is easy — literally — to not see the forest for the trees. 

Executive Order 14225
The latest target that seems to be slipping under the radar is Trump’s Executive Order 14225 (Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production), which directs the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to increase domestic production of timber.

The Executive Order exempts affected forests from a process that would allow outside groups, tribes, and local governments to challenge logging proposals before they are finalized. This includes the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other regulations that evolved from the public demanding greater protection of our natural resources. The Order also narrows the number of alternatives Federal officials can consider, such as clearcutting versus commercial thinning.

Memo cites “emergency situation” as rationale for boosting timber production
On the heels of Trump’s Executive came Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ Memorandum 1078-006, Increasing timber production and designating an emergency situation on National Forest System Lands.

On Forest Service lands alone, this memo opens 280 million acres of public forests to logging. That is 59 percent of all national forests (an area three times the size of California) to meet a target of a 25 percent increase in timber production over the next four to five years.

The Memo argues that stagnant timber production and out-of-control wildfires have created an “emergency situation” that can only be remedied by cutting down the majority of our national forests.
According to the Memo, “The value of wood products derived from projects on national forests will play a crucial role in driving economic growth while supporting essential efforts to reduce wildfire risk and promote forest health.”

Neither the economic argument nor the weaponizing of wildfires tells the whole story.

While it’s true that the Forest Service’s current harvest target is half of what it was in the 1980s, what the Memo does not say is that today the Forest Service is meeting only half of its current harvesting target. That can happen for any number of reasons — a sale that doesn't sell, difficulty in designing a sale that meets environmental rules, lack of harvesting knowledge and workforce due to recent Forest Service firings, etc.

And, while it’s also true that clear cutting can remove some potential fuel for fires, the resulting landscape can actually become more fire-prone due to the formation of dense, young tree plantations that burn hotter and faster than mature forests. 
 
The bottom line is that, without changing the harvesting rules, the Forest Service can double what it’s cutting now to improve timber's role in driving economic growth and still promote forest health without destroying habitat, species, and streams.

The Fix Our Forests Act
Following the Executive Order and Memorandum, a Fix Our Forests Act was introduced in the Senate and passed in the House by a bipartisan vote of 279-141.

Congress hailed what they said was a response to the urgent need to protect communities from the growing threat of catastrophic wildfires. But instead of promoting policies and forest management practices grounded in science, the Fix Our Forests Act bypasses critical environmental laws that protect our ecosystems. The Act also restricts scientific input and public engagement. The bill could have devastating consequences for the environment and endangered species. (Environment America, January 22, 2025)

Together, these actions represent a three-pronged attack to massively reduce capacity at the Forest Service to fight the wildfire crisis and properly manage our National Forests.  

An impossible timeline
Regional Foresters and Deputy Chiefs have been given timelines between 30-90 days to come up with plans for ‘sustained’ harvests and to direct employee workloads in support. This in spite of the fact that the Administration has fired or forced out about 5,200 Forest Service employees — at least 500 employees in Region 6 (Washington and Oregon) alone. The subtle threat is that if the USFS can’t meet these unrealistic timelines, the Administration will have reason to privatize management of public lands.

Perhaps it is just a matter of time before national parks, crippled by a reduction in workforce, are sold to corporations to run them under their corporate name. Can you imagine ‘T-Mobile National Park’ or ‘Tesla Mt. Rushmore’ in our future? Will the public no longer have ‘public lands’?
 
What does this mean locally?  
The map accompanying the Forest Service memo below clearly shows that the Trump administration has targeted every National Forest in Washington State. This includes the Olympic National Forest, large swaths in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and seemingly all of the Okanogan-Wenatchee, Colville and Umatilla National Forests. (Seattle Times, April 4, 2025)  

If the administration is successful in this massive effort, whether through professional agency workforces or through contracting to private corporations, in just five years over half of Forest Service timber will be gone. While trees grow fairly fast in the Pacific Northwest, it will be a minimum of 60 years before a tree reaches a harvestable age. 

When the timber is gone, the jobs created to harvest that timber will also end. Habitat gone. Recreation potential lost.

It will take millennia to undo the damage.

What can I do?
The fight against the Great National Forest Timber Giveaway Sale has already begun with the creation of toolkits designed to help you and your community push back on these harmful policies. Lauren Anderson, Climate Forests Program Manager for Oregon Wild, the state’s oldest environmental nonprofit, has generously shared a comprehensive list of resources she compiled to help all of us get started.

Action Items:

• Use this Fix Our Forests toolkit to:
  • Submit LTE’s and op-eds
  • Email, call, and write to your Senators asking that they oppose the bill
• Use NRDC’s Logging Sec. Memo Analysis with the media and share with your networks. 
• Check out this toolkit on Trump’s logging executive orders.

What we’re reading / listening to this week:

• Public lands deserve management, not mayhem (Gunnison Country Times, March 19, 2025)
• My journey through the forest tells a story of fragility and resilience (Seattle Times, April 15, 2025 [requires subscription])
• More details surface in Trump Administration Plan to cut National Forests (Seattle Times, April 4, 2025 [requires subscription]) (story includes map targeting every National Forest in Washington State)

Fact Sheets + other resources 

• Trump logging executive orders (summary link) 
• Subsequent Secretary Rollins memo (summary link)
• How the Forest Service Is Cutting Forest Protections to Boost Logging in the Pacific Northwest (Story Map, WildEarth Guardians, March 11, 2025)