U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a Secretarial Memo to establish an “Emergency Situation Determination” on 112,646,000 acres of National Forestry System (NFS) land, including the national forests of the Pacific Northwest.
The memo comes on the heels of President Trump’s Executive Order to expand American timber production by 25%.
The Agriculture Department says the action “will empower the U.S. Forest Service to expedite work on the ground and carry out authorized emergency actions to reduce wildfire risk and save American lives and communities.”
“Healthy forests require work, and right now, we’re facing a national forest emergency. We have an abundance of timber at high risk of wildfires in our National Forests,” said Rollins. “I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive.”
This memo, says the agency, will spur the U.S. Forest Service to “increase timber outputs, simplify permitting, remove National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes, reduce implementation and contracting burdens, and to work directly with states, local government, and forest product producers to ensure that the Forest Service delivers a reliable and consistent supply of timber.”
A memo to regional foresters by Christopher French, Acting Associate Chief of the Forest Service said he is directing the “Deputy Chief for the National Forest System, in consultation with other Deputy Chiefs, Regions and Forests, to develop a national strategy that outlines our agency’s goals, objectives and initial actions related to increasing active forest management.
“This will be completed in 30 days. I am directing all Regional Foresters to develop 5-year strategies, tiered to the national strategy, to increase their timber volume offered, leading to an agencywide increase of 25% over the next 4-5 years.
“These regional timber strategies will include an assessment of their current 5-year Regional Foresters and Deputy Chiefs 2 program of work (POW) that includes timber volume, opportunities to expand that POW, a wood utilization facility risk assessment, barriers to achieving a 25% increase in volume (including information beyond funding needed), and potential solutions to overcoming those barriers.”
In addition, said French, the agency “will fund up to $50 Million in Good Neighbor Authority Agreements that will fund road and bridge maintenance and reconstruction for active forest management projects. This work will emphasize the minimum standards necessary for safety and removal of wood products.”
See French’s full memo here: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/implementation-secretarial-memo-1078-006.pdf
“Don’t be fooled: the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress aren’t trying to solve the wildfire crisis or protect communities threatened by it. Instead, they are aiming to deepen the pockets of private industry to log across our shared, public forests, while sidestepping public review,” said Josh Hicks, Conservation Campaigns Director at The Wilderness Society. “Secretary Rollins’ memo is another ruthless attack, in line with President Trump’s recent logging Executive Order and the poison-pill Fix Our Forests Act. We need members in Congress, especially those who have constituents demanding real wildfire solutions in the West, to stand up and oppose these attempts to hand over our public forests to private industry.”
The Secretarial Memo, said The Wilderness Society, “is a part of a multi-pronged attack, alongside attempts to massively reduce capacity at the Forest Service to fight the wildfire crisis and properly manage the national forests. It would have the following damaging effects:
- Making timber production – rather than community protection – the focus of Forest Service wildfire mitigation work.
- Declaring nearly 60 percent of all national forest lands to be in a state of “emergency” requiring reduced public involvement and environmental safeguards.
- Short-cutting numerous environmental laws, such as those designed to protect endangered species and cultural resources, under the guise of an “emergency” to increase timber production.
- Advancing the Trump Administration agenda to reduce Forest Service personnel by eliminating public input and scientific review of logging projects.”