Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US.
The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres of national forests and other public lands, claiming that “heavy-handed federal policies” have made America reliant on foreign imports of timber.
“It is vital that we reverse these policies and increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security,” the order adds.
Trump has instructed the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to increase logging targets and for officials to circumvent the US’s endangered species act by using unspecified emergency powers to ignore protections placed upon vulnerable creatures’ habitats.
This move is similar to recent instructions by Trump to use a rarely-used committee to push through fossil fuel projects even if they imperil at-risk species. Experts have said this overriding of the endangered species act is likely illegal.
The order also stipulates logging projects can be sped up if they are for purported wildfire risk reduction, via ‘thinning’ of vegetation that could ignite. Some scientists have said that aggressively felling forests, particularly established, fire-resistant trees, actually increases the risk of fast-moving fires.
“This Trump executive order is the most blatant attempt in American history by a president to hand over federal public lands to the logging industry,” said Chad Hanson, wildfire scientist at the John Muir Project.
“What’s worse, the executive order is built on a lie, as Trump falsely claims that more logging will curb wildfires and protect communities, while the overwhelming weight of evidence shows exactly the opposite.”
Hanson said logging alters the microclimate of forests, creating hotter and drier conditions that helps wildfires, such as the events that recently ravaged Los Angeles, to spread faster.
“Trump’s exact approach, logging in remote forests and telling communities that it will stop fires, is responsible for numerous towns being destroyed by fires in recent years, and hundreds of lives lost,” he said.
Environmental groups decried Trump’s latest attempt to circumvent endangered species laws that shield around 400 species in national forests, including grizzly bears, spotted owls and wild salmon, and warned an increase in logging could pollute the water supply relied upon by millions of Americans.
“Trump’s order will unleash the chainsaws and bulldozers on our federal forests. Clearcutting these beautiful places will increase fire risk, drive species to extinction, pollute our rivers and streams, and destroy world-class recreation sites,” said Randi Spivak public lands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This is a particularly horrific move by Trump to loot our public lands by handing the keys to big business.”
The future of some of America’s most prized forests now appears uncertain. Under Joe Biden, the US committed to protecting the last fragments of old growth forest, which contain some of the grandest and oldest trees on Earth. As trees soak up planet-heating carbon dioxide, protecting the oldest, most carbon-rich trees is seen as a way to help address the climate crisis. The former president also vowed to end deforestation by 2030.
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However, the amount of logging in national forests surged under Biden amid a rush of tree felling ahead of expected restrictions on old-growth cutting. Biden, under pressure from Republicans and the timber industry, halted the old growth protection plan in January and Trump officially killed off the executive order in his first day back in the White House.
Trump’s shift towards a more industry-friendly stance has been underlined by his choice of a lumber executive lead the Forest Service, which has just fired 2,000 workers amid a purge led by Elon Musk, who has also been recently seen wielding a chainsaw.
Tom Schultz, previously a vice president of Idaho Forest Group, which sells wood, will be the next Forest Service chief, overseeing the management of 154 national forests and 193m acres of land, an area roughly the size of Texas.
“Working with our partners, we will actively manage national forests and grasslands, increase opportunities for outdoor recreation, and suppress wildfires with all available resources emphasizing safety and the importance of protecting resource values,” Schultz said in a statement.
Green groups criticized the choice of Schultz. “Naming a corporate lobbyist to run the agency tasked with overseeing the last old growth left in the US makes it clear that the Trump administration’s goal isn’t to preserve our national forests, but to sell them off to billionaires and corporate polluters,” said Anna Medema, associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for forests and public lands at the Sierra Club.
Schultz replaces Randy Moore, a soil scientist who was the first black person to lead the Forest Service. In a departing note to staff ahead of his retirement, Moore wrote that the recent loss of staff from the agency has been “incredibly difficult”.
“If you are feeling uncertainty, frustration, or loss, you are not alone,” Moore wrote. “These are real and valid emotions that I am feeling, too. Please take care of yourselves and each other.”
