A logger marks his cut timber in Walden, Colo., in 2009. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the U.S. Forest Service is investing $106 million to support state and landowner efforts to conserve private working forestlands. File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI | License Photo
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced the U.S. Forest Service is investing $106 million to support state and landowner efforts to conserve private working forestlands, according to a press release.
The United States Department of Agriculture said the projects funded will “protect forests vital to the economic and social fabric of local communities – ensuring they remain productive, working forests for Americans and tourists to use and enjoy.”
“Just like our farms and ranches, working forests are part of the backbone of rural America — providing jobs, timber, clean water, and places for families to hunt, fish, camp, hike and make lifelong memories,” said Secretary Brooke Rollins. “For too long our forests have been left idle, only to burn and devastate communities. President [Donald] Trump has made it a priority to properly manage our forests, empowering USDA and our state partners to protect and unleash the full potential of their forestlands to help their communities grow and thrive.”
The Forest Service will fund 10 projects across 177,000 acres of state and privately owned forestlands in Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Oregon and South Carolina.
In April, the USDA announced it will begin allowing logging in U.S. national forests to spur timber production amid reciprocal tariffs on other nations.
The USDA memo said it plans to expands U.S. timber production by 25%. It also 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,” according to a news release.
To achieve this, the Forest Service will remove National Environmental Policy Act processes and reduce contracting burdens.
Rollins said the projects will improve rural economies and avoid wildfire risk.
Environmental groups are against the change.
In March, Trump signed two executive orders that called for the expansion of timber production even for projects that might harm endangered species, and a review of how importing lumber might harm “national security.”
“This executive order sets in motion a chainsaw free-for-all on our federal forests,” Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a representative for the group Earthjustice, said in a statement.
“Americans treasure our forests for all the benefits they provide, such as recreation, clean air, and clean drinking water. But this order ignores these values and opens the door for wild lands to be plundered, for nothing more than corporate gain. In the long run, this will worsen the effects of climate change, while also destroying critical wildlife habitat.”
The Sierra Club said the order was a giveaway to the logging industry.
The United States, China, Russia and Canada are the largest producers of wood globally.
In 2023, plans for the U.S. Forest Service to plant more than a billion trees by 2030 — to shade and cool cities, protect water and fight climate change — are being threatened by seedling scarcity and funding issues, a study by the journal Bioscience found.
