One of my earliest memories of listening to Rush Limbaugh was laughing at his statement, “Trees are crops.”
It was an a-ha moment for me back in the early 1990s.
As our country has experienced numerous wildfires due to poor forestry and land management, I am delighted to report that common sense is returning to resource management.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a major policy shift to expand logging in national forests under an emergency designation.
This directive, issued by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, follows an executive order by President Donald Trump aimed at increasing domestic timber production by 25% in response to trade tensions and wildfire risks.
There are 154 national forests covering approximately 188.3 million acres. The most forests are 18 in California.”Healthy forests require work, and right now, we’re facing a national forest emergency,” Rollins said in a statement. “We have an abundance of timber at high risk of wildfires in our National Forest.”I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive.”
In her statement, Rollins acknowledged that more attention would be given to proper forest management.
Rollins stated that the national forests are in crisis due to “uncharacteristically severe wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, invasive species, and other stressors.”Those threats—combined with overgrown forests, the growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, and decades of rigorous fire suppression—have contributed to a “full-blown wildfire” and “forest health crisis,” according to the memo.“Healthy forests require work, and right now, we’re facing a national forest emergency,” Rollins said in a statement. “We have an abundance of timber at high risk of wildfires in our National Forests.”
Of course, the Associated Press covered the topic with its usual Trump-hating hysteria, titled its piece “Trump administration rolls back forest protections in bid to ramp up logging.” The article featured eco-activists’ anti-business rantings.
Environmentalists rejected the claim that wildfire protection was driving the changes to forest policy.In response to the new directive, Forest Service officials at the regional level were told to come up with plans to increase the volume of timber offered by 25% over the next four to five years. In a letter from Acting Associate Chief Chris French, they were also told to identify projects that could receive “categorical exclusions,” which are exemptions from stringent environmental analyses.“This is all about helping the timber industry,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley of the environmental group Earthjustice. “It’s not looking at what will protect communities. It’s about the number of board feet, the number of trees you are pulling down.”
Personally, I would love to see more American-made wood products…and I am sure a more local supply would cut down on all the costs…especially those associated with rebuilding after wildfires.
One a side-note, Rollins had some fun with CNN’s Jake Tapper this weekend. America is so back, baby.
https://twitter.com/BrentHBaker/status/1908892099145068573?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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