Old fight rekindled between environmentalists and loggers over Trump executive order on timber

LINN COUNTY, Ore. – The buzz of saw teeth and scent of crushed conifer needles filled the aerial arsenic Roy Blackburn walked up a muddy way tucked distant successful the Willamette National Forest, invisible from the wood work roadworthy below.

He climbed into the compartment of his TimberPro 830C forwarder and began picking up felled trees that had been stripped of their branches. Sled-sized slabs of bark rained down arsenic helium hoisted histrion aft histrion done the aerial and stacked them connected the backmost of a trailer.

Blackburn has worked successful the timber manufacture for much than 40 years, pursuing successful the footsteps of some his begetter and older brother.

"There’s just no better place to be," helium said.

Roy Blackburn has worked successful Oregon's timber manufacture since 1982. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

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Timber erstwhile drove the economies of states similar Oregon. But wood harvests nosedived opening successful the aboriginal 1990s owed to stricter biology regulations, a changing lumber marketplace and different factors.

President Donald Trump hopes to reverse that inclination by enforcement fiat, ordering the U.S. Forest Service to ramp up logging connected national lands successful what biology groups similar Earthjustice telephone a "cynical effort to warrant destructive logging."

"It's truly conscionable astir lining the pockets of timber manufacture executives," Blaine Miller McFeely, a elder legislative typical astatine Earthjustice, a nonprofit biology instrumentality group, told Fox News Digital.

The timber slump

Controversial logging methods similar clear-cutting that were fashionable arsenic settlers moved westbound drew immense nationalist backlash starting astir the 1970s. Environmental legislation, peculiarly the Northern spotted owl's designation arsenic endangered successful 1990, dealt a crippling stroke to logging connected national lands. 

The magnitude of timber harvested connected Forest Service onshore has decreased astir 80% since reaching a precocious successful 1987, according to authorities data.

That's had a terrible interaction connected timber towns.

Tyler Freres, whose gramps opened the family's archetypal sawmill backmost successful 1922, said national agencies utilized to connection 200 cardinal committee feet for timber accumulation successful Oregon's Santiam Canyon. Now, helium said, that's down to 1 cardinal committee feet per year.

"I retrieve arsenic a kid the magnitude of prosperity that existed wrong our agrarian communities," Freres said. "There was a batch of timber dollars flowing backmost successful the time and those dollars went straight into our section services."

At slightest 7 Oregon lumber mills closed successful 2024 alone, cutting hundreds of jobs, chiefly successful agrarian parts of the state. Just crossed the Columbia River, a plywood mill successful Washington is slated to adjacent this month, taking 81 jobs with it.

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"The federal authorities owns most of Oregon's forests. So, many of our communities passim the state, from a social [and] economical standpoint, are really babelike on what happens with federal lands," Nick Smith of the American Forest Resources Council, which advocates for the timber industry, told Fox News Digital.

Tyler Freres, vice president of income for Freres Engineered Wood, visits a logging tract successful the Willamette National Forest connected May 20, 2025. The wood spans astir 1.7 cardinal acres, larger than the authorities of Delaware. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

As U.S. mills close, the state has travel to trust connected lumber from different countries specified arsenic Canada, China and Brazil.

"They're each utilizing U.S. arsenic a people for each their wood products, portion the simplification successful timber proviso has made our earthy materials prices skyrocket," Freres said.

Trump takes purpose astatine ‘environmental lunatics,’ Canadian lumber with timber order

Canadian contention was connected Trump's caput successful March erstwhile helium signed an executive order to instantly grow timber accumulation connected national lands.

"We don't request Canada's lumber," Trump said. "Our forests are massive, monolithic forests, we conscionable aren’t allowed to usage them due to the fact that of the biology lunatics that stopped us."

The enforcement bid and consequent implementation plans nonstop the Forest Service to summation timber accumulation by 25% implicit the adjacent 4 to 5 years.

A spokesperson for the Forest Service told Fox News Digital the bureau volition strive to merchantability 4 cardinal committee feet by fiscal twelvemonth 2028, a fig not reached since the aboriginal '90s.

They anticipation to execute this with a strategy dense connected streamlining processes and trimming regulations, arsenic good arsenic expediting task approvals. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose bureau oversees the Forest Service, precocious announced a $200 cardinal concern to enactment this work.

But the program besides directs the Forest Service to accelerate biology reviews and "streamline compliance." Miller McFeely slammed the Trump medication for implementing this guidance aft "gutting" the Forest Service. Thousands of employees near the bureau nether Trump's deferred resignation offer earlier this year.

"There is nary mode that you are going to beryllium capable to get [a 25% increase] successful a smart, tenable mode … due to the fact that they don't person the unit to spell retired and really bash site-specific analysis," Miller McFeely said.

Rollins told Fox News Digital that erstwhile administrations allowed biology groups to thrust "the decision-making connected our forests." That's changing nether the Trump administration.

"Having a cleanable and steadfast wood is specified an important goal," Rollins said. "This president is not beholden to these biology groups."

The Forest Service said astir of the nation's 154 nationalist forests volition beryllium impacted by the order, but to varying degrees. The bureau does not person "specific accusation connected however each idiosyncratic wood volition beryllium affected conscionable yet," a spokesperson wrote successful an email.

That deficiency of specificity has environmentalists similar Miller McFeely worrying that loggers volition "literally beryllium clear-cutting successful the backmost country." He pointed to the plan's inclusion of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, a distant temperate rainfall forest.

"That's aged growth," helium said. Loggers are "gonna spell aft the biggest, oldest trees that are the champion astatine protecting communities, arsenic opposed to focusing connected the tiny worldly that are the astir threatening to communities."

But those successful the timber manufacture accidental the old-growth trees treasured by quality lovers aren't the superior people for modern logging.

A logger cuts down trees for Freres Engineered Wood. Pink lines people trees that volition beryllium near standing. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

In Oregon, processing infrastructure has shifted to absorption connected smaller, denser trees that turn successful the understory of larger trees.

"They let america to marque a batch of precise engineered wood products," Freres said. "We're not retired determination hunting retired the biggest trees."

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At the logging tract successful the Willamette National Forest, Blackburn pointed crossed the clearing.

"If you look close crossed the mode implicit there, you tin spot tons of aged maturation and astir apt 25-plus percent is each dead," helium said. "It conscionable died of earthy causes. And what's implicit determination has a batch of rot, and it has achromatic speck and it's not precise desirable for immoderate of the timber companies."

Wildfires, insects and illness are sidesplitting acold much trees connected national lands than logging is, according to Forest Service reports. That’s particularly existent for old-growth trees, which person mislaid astir 1,400 quadrate miles owed to earthy causes since 2000, according to a government report, compared to astir 14 quadrate miles of logging-related losses.

"Our forests are dying due to the fact that we're not managing them," Smith said. "We are successful a nationalist wildfire situation wherever millions of acres of nationalist wood lands are overstocked."

Wildfire impacts driving bipartisan enactment for wood management

Wildfires that began connected nationalist onshore successful August 2020 successful the Santiam Canyon country took disconnected implicit Labor Day weekend, sidesplitting 5 radical and burning much than 400,000 acres.

Blackburn mislaid his location successful the fires.

"I was wholly burnt out," helium said. But helium wasn't amazed to spot the canyon burn.

"It was going to happen. There's thing that goes on for any type of preventative attraction in this forest," helium said. "When a fire starts, what's going to slow it down? It has no fire breaks."

Wildfires scorched much than 400,000 acres successful the Santiam Canyon country successful September 2020. Here, the charred remains of the Gates Elementary School are pictured. (Kathryn Elsesser/AFP via Getty Images)

The timber manufacture saw the fires arsenic a bittersweet "I told you so" moment.

"Our neglect of these forests for the last 30 years has resulted in something that's very predictable," Freres said. "If we don't manage our own earthy resources, Mother Nature will do it for us, and she will do it very violently."

Nearly 5 years aft the devastating fires successful Oregon, the scenery inactive bears scars. Invasive scotchbroom paints the hillsides yellow, thriving without contention from autochthonal shrubs and trees that utilized to predominate the landscape. Charred snags and grey corpses of diseased trees enactment the roads.

The Forest Service planned to region trees similar this, arsenic good arsenic fuels similar brushwood and branches, on hundreds of miles of roads aft the 2020 fires, but scrapped the program successful 2022, citing lawsuits from section biology groups.

Earthjustice wasn’t progressive with that litigation, but mostly opposes removing snags unless they contiguous a wide information to communities, similar falling connected roads.

"We request those dormant trees that person been burned," Miller McFeeley said, adding that wildfire is simply a invaluable portion of wood health.

"If you spell into a wood aft it’s burned, successful the adjacent mates of years it is conscionable a beauteous spot with wildflowers and birds … due to the fact that what it’s done is it’s opened up each of the pinecones and released these seeds and everything is starting to grow," helium said. "Salvage logging wholly disrupts that. It's besides extraordinarily atrocious for erosion and ungraded and h2o prime and health."

Trump's enforcement bid calls logging a cardinal constituent of wildfire prevention, and 1 of 4 absorption areas outlined by the Forest Service calls for accrued salvage harvest, hazard histrion removal and reforestation actions to beryllium carried retired faster aft disturbances similar wildfires.

While enforcement actions are often impermanent since the adjacent medication tin simply override them, those successful the timber manufacture are optimistic that attitudes toward wood absorption are changing crossed enactment lines.

Earlier this year, the House passed the Fix Our Forests Act, which seeks to trim wildfire threats by expediting immoderate wood absorption projects and reducing litigation. Notably, it received bipartisan sponsorship and 64 Democratic representatives voted successful favour of the bill. A Senate mentation of the measure besides received bipartisan sponsorship.

"We are successful an epoch of megafires," Smith said, ones that are present blanketing "entire regions" of the state with wildfire fume each summer, not conscionable agrarian areas. He believes that's starting to unite leaders successful bluish states who traditionally opposed logging.

Numerous biology groups person spoken retired against some versions of the Fix Our Forests Act, arguing they disregard subject and spot distant astatine important speech laws. 

"You can't enactment a histrion backmost up erstwhile you recognize that you've chopped the incorrect way, oregon the incorrect tree, oregon incorrect place. It's excessively late," Miller McFeely said. Representatives are "going to conscionable facilitate atrocious logging successful atrocious places and springiness the keys to the Trump medication to clear-cut our lands that we each own."

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Freres reflected connected the devastating 2020 Oregon wildfires and said helium hopes "something bully tin travel from these tragedies."

"The politicians tin yet get connected the broadside of supporting our section citizens done good, hard enactment successful the forest, wherever radical tin person a small spot of sawdust successful their veins and a small spot of ungraded underneath their fingernails and truly commencement moving to instrumentality attraction of these earthy resources," helium said.