"Efforts to blunt the ferocity and destruction of wildfires are dividing conservation advocates over proposals that would sidetrack science and allow for less analysis under the country’s hallmark environmental law. Critics fear that approach could accelerate unnecessary logging in national forests.
Global warming and drought have intensified wildfires; but ramping up timber production on federal land as President Trump is ordering would fuel the climate crisis, some scientists say. And as Congress members shepherd legislation to reduce vegetation that feeds infernos, critics foresee a gateway to unnecessary logging beyond wildfire resilience efforts.
Two distinct themes are advancing: Trump’s executive orders directing more logging to serve “jobs and prosperity” and reduce imports; and congressional proposals for forest thinning and prescribed burns to limit wildfire destruction that threatens communities.
Their intersection: Both center on what activities should be permitted, and how quickly, on federal forest land, the once-prolific logging arenas that today serve a range of recreation, wilderness, watershed protection, grazing, and wildlife habitat purposes, while harvesting a fraction of the U.S. timber. Privately owned forests produce some 90 percent of the nation's timber."
Rita Beamish and Kurt Repanshek report for National Parks Traveler May 11, 2025.
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