Trump Signs Executive Order Handing U.S. Public Forests Over to Private Logging Industry
Protesters against the Trump administration’s layoffs of federal workers at Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, California on March 1, 2025. Santiago Mejia / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump over the weekend could have a disastrous effect on endangered species, climate change and local economies, warned conservation groups.
The order encouraging the “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production” seeks to erode Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection rules in favor of the expansion of tree felling across 280 million acres of United States national forests, as well as other public lands, for timber, reported The Guardian.
“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 wildfire scientist Chad Hanson with 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.”
The order goes as far as setting an annual target for the amount of timber offered for sale, along with other measures, which could lead to widespread clear-cutting, a press release from Earthjustice said.
The announcement follows last week’s appointment of Tom Schultz as the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Schultz is a former executive of timber company Idaho Forest Group.
“Naming a corporate lobbyist to run the agency tasked with overseeing the last old growth left in the U.S. 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, Sierra Club’s associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for forests and public lands, as The Guardian reported.
The action is similar to a recent move by Trump that used an obscure committee to advance fossil fuel projects that put threatened species at risk. According to experts, this disregard for ESA rules is likely illegal.
The order says it is “vital” to reverse what it calls “heavy-handed federal policies” and “increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security.” 03-05-25