Trump Administration Places Thumb on Scale of Timber Industry Profit – Routs Environmental and Conservation Laws in the Process

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, has issued a secretarial memo that throws out environmental policies and safeguards in favor of timber industry profits. The secretarial memo declares an emergency on over 112 million acres of our national forests, enabling the administration to bypass environmental safeguards and rubberstamp logging projects.  “This secretarial memo is a needless favor to the timber industry and yet another assault by this administration in its quest to destroy decades of conservation successes,” said Andrew Bowman, Defenders of Wildlife president and CEO. “Make no mistake, this order, among many others, will do nothing to combat wildfires. Instead, its directive to increase timber production threatens to erase the larger, older, and more fire-resilient trees.”  

The USDA issued this memo to implement President Trump’s recent executive order to significantly expand American timber production. It cites wildfire risk to timber resources in making an “emergency situation determination” aimed at short-cutting environmental protections and review designed to give people a voice and make projects better. The focus is on logging, however, and limiting protections under laws like the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act which will do nothing to keep people safe. These laws are not only essential to protecting wildlife — they ensure that America’s land, water, and air remains healthy and robust.  

“Rather than scapegoating environmental and conservation laws, the administration should be providing the U.S. Forest Service with resources and workers to protect the health of our forests,” said Bowman. “Instead, it’s poised to unleash devastating cuts to staff and resources in a calculated move to make the U.S. Forest Service a subsidiary of the timber industry.”

There are real solutions to reducing the risk of wildfire, including bringing the U.S. Forest Service back to full strength and directing it to use its own scientific research to promote community safety and ecologically-sound management.  

“Our national forests are one of this country’s best ideas. They provide homes to over 400 threatened and endangered species, are the last refuge for salmon and other fish, and provide clean drinking water to one in five Americans,” Bowman said. “The administration’s action today will lead to the destruction of what we value most about our natural forests.”

###