Executive Orders Direct a Massive Expansion of Logging on Public Lands

The EOs—"Addressing the Threat to National Security from Imports of Timber, Lumber" and "Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production"—set the stage for expanded logging, regulatory rollbacks, and weakened protections for federal forests across the country. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska—the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest—is under particular threat from increased logging stemming from these EOs as well as others.  

Compounding the potential damage, many of the provisions in these EOs are likely unlawful. Applying the Endangered Species Act’s emergency provisions to regularly planned logging, for example, appears inconsistent with the statute and governing regulations. And directing federal agencies to rescind regulations creating an “undue burden” on logging may violate laws providing for rational decision-making and public comment. 

More broadly, these EOs cut strongly against the congressionally mandated direction for federal forest management by functionally subordinating all management directions to timber production.

These EOs are based on the flawed premise that increased logging on federal forests can help protect us from chaos, whether threats to communities from wildfire or housing costs exacerbated by tariffs. It won’t. These EOs prioritize short-term logging profits at the expense of long-term forest health, climate stability, ecosystem services, and community well-being. And they will have an even greater destructive effect on our forests because of the already heightened risk of forest degradation from depleted and demoralized agencies increasingly unable to fulfill their conservation mandates. 

The impacts include:

• Increased health risks: The national forests provide clean water and clean air for millions of Americans. Supercharging logging—particularly of older forests—will make communities more vulnerable to pollution, harming health and well-being.
• Increased wildfire risk: Logging—and the road-building that goes with it—creates conditions that exacerbate wildfire risk. It dries out forests. It leaves behind piles of highly flammable materials. And it focuses on removing the big, older trees that are generally the most fire-resistant. 
• Fewer resources for wildfire: Focusing remaining agency personnel and resources on facilitating federal logging means fewer resources to protect communities from the impacts of wildfires in ways that work. 
• Corporate handouts: Wealthy corporate interests stand to benefit significantly, while taxpayers will foot the bill for the environmental damage and disaster-recovery efforts that follow. Essentially, the Trump administration is gifting the public’s forests to private interests. 
• Harm to wildlife: Fast-tracked logging will destroy critical habitat for threatened species and degrade biodiversity across public lands.
• Ecosystem disruption: Older forests and trees cool the air, provide refuge for wildfire, stabilize soils, regulate the flow of water, and store massive amounts of carbon. Logging them destroys all these benefits, worsening the climate crisis at a time when we can least afford it.
• Misalignment with international markets: Companies, investors, and regulators around the world give preference to wood product markets that ensure baseline sustainability standards. The Trump administration is jeopardizing U.S. companies’ access to this changing marketplace, putting the country at a competitive disadvantage globally.  

The Trump administration is building upon its penchant for rewarding the few at the expense of the many—prioritizing extractive industries over conservation, rolling back critical environmental safeguards, and dismantling public land protections. Deregulating and privatizing federal forest management does not make America safer, and it certainly does not benefit the public—it senselessly dismantles standard guardrails at the expense of the environment and public health.

These EOs stand in stark contrast to the growing global pressure for more equitable accountability for countries to meet international forest protection targets. The United States benefits from a system of international policy that gives little scrutiny to logging impacts in wealthy northern countries and externalizes the costs of the climate and biodiversity impacts. President Trump’s latest actions illustrate the risks to both Americans and the world of leaving northern countries to operate outside the bounds of international norms, underscoring the need for global policies that set consistent, shared expectations for countries.

The USDA and DOI will begin implementing the orders’ directives. And the U.S. Department of Commerce will now conduct its investigation into timber imports. This will likely result in:

• A suite of new federal policies aimed at deregulating and privatizing federal forest management to boost logging
• Increased interest in logging across public lands
• Challenges from groups and members of the public fighting to protect forests, communities, and wildlife
• Increased scrutiny from members of Congress, state governments, and local governments that oppose dismantling conservation policies

These executive orders mark a significant shift toward commercial logging as the north star of federal forest management, prioritizing short-term industry gains over the long-term natural values of America’s forests.​​