The U.S. Department of the Interior's Forest Service is abandoning protections on federal land that help shield forests and their wildlife from activities like logging and overdevelopment. The Forest Service has proposed weakening one of our bedrock environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act, by allowing more “categorical exclusions” that permit proposed projects to bypass the NEPA review process. That’s particularly bad news, considering the carbon-storing power of forests is one of our most potent tools to fight climate change.
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Trump Administration Wants to Cut Down Forestry Protections
Expert BlogNRDC
The proposal could greenlight and fast-track destructive activities like logging and overdevelopment.
Stop the War on Environmental Reviews: Protecting NEPA Protects our Planet
Fact SheetUnited StatesScott Slesinger
A Massive Plan to Expand Forests—and Save the World
Expert BlogSasha Stashwick
Forests are some of the most incredible places on Earth—teeming with life, filtering our drinking water, and providing us myriad outdoor recreation opportunities. Trees are also the most effective means to capture and store carbon, making them our frontline defense…
Cutting Down Forests Is Not a Climate Solution
Expert BlogSasha Stashwick, Sami Yassa
The case for biomass energy, such as it was, collapsed in 2018. While we have long argued that uprooting forests and burning the wood for electricity makes no sense, a raft of new scientific studies, policy documents and economic analyses…
IPCC: The Future of Our Climate Is the Future of Our Forests
Expert BlogSasha Stashwick
We will not stay below 1.5 degrees unless we recognize that forests are our best tool for reducing carbon emissions and implement massive programs to protect, restore and expand them, and put an immediate end to subsidies and other policy…