"The president issued an executive order aimed at accelerating logging projects across national forests and public lands, significantly weakening environmental review processes. The order primarily directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USFS) and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expedite timber harvest approvals by limiting the scope of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
The Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act are critical to wildlife conservation as they help to protect and recover endangered species, preserve ecosystems, and ensure sustainable resource management. The ESA safeguards species at risk of extinction by mandating habitat conservation and recovery plans, while NEPA requires thorough environmental assessments before major actions, like timber harvest, can proceed. These laws help maintain biodiversity, prevent habitat destruction, and allow public and scientific input in decision-making.
This directive follows a series of executive actions designed to roll back federal environmental oversight. A prior executive order sought to dismantle key components of the federal environmental review process, while the latest order extends those efforts into forest management. In addition to a federal hiring freeze, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has dismissed approximately 3,400 Forest Service employees, around 10 percent of its workforce, further straining the agency’s ability to manage public lands.
The impact on Washington’s national forests has been severe, with the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests each losing about a third of their staff, falling particularly heavy on their recreation teams.
Impacts on Public Lands and Communities:
Recreation and Access: With dramatically reduced staffing, the Forest Service will struggle to maintain roads, hiking trails, visitor services, and law enforcement patrols. This is expected to result in degraded recreation quality, increased illegal activities such as unauthorized off-road vehicle use, and a decline in public land upkeep. Tribal treaty resources will be further degraded.
Wildfire Risk: Despite the administration’s claims that increased logging will mitigate wildfires, research contradicts this assertion. Industrial timberlands, often heavily logged, have been shown to burn more intensely. Effective wildfire risk reduction requires carefully planned thinning, retention of larger trees, and prescribed burning, none of which are directly supported by this executive order. The order invokes state and Tribal partnerships to address such needs but provides no new funds to partners.
Old-Growth and Roadless Areas: For now, protections for roadless areas remain intact under Clinton-era policies, which the Trump administration failed to repeal in its previous term. Forest management plans developed under the National Forest Management Act continue to provide some safeguards for old-growth forests and other resources, though enforcement and oversight may weaken. Today’s modern mills also have limited processing capacity, especially for big logs. However, if the administration does ramp up logging of older forests, there would be significant negative impacts to biodiversity through loss of habitat complexity and climate through the release of large amounts of stored carbon.
Conservation Northwest remains committed to advocating for science-based forest management that prioritizes ecological health and community resilience. Our Forest Field Team will continue trying to collaborate with agencies and partners to promote responsible forestry while resisting harmful projects.
A return to polarization and litigation will not be good for the land, communities, or our flagging democracy. But if left without better options, we will do what we must.
Key Deadlines and Next Steps:
- March 31, 2025: BLM and USFS to establish guidance for logging under Good Neighbor Authority, stewardship contracting, and the Tribal Forest Protection Act.
- April 30, 2025: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Assistant Administrator for Fisheries to develop an expedited ESA review process for forest management projects.
- May 30, 2025: Interior and USDA to set annual timber harvest targets.
- June 29, 2025: FWS, BLM, and USFS to complete the Whitebark Pine Rangewide Programmatic Consultation under ESA Section 7.
- August 28, 2025: Consideration of NEPA exemptions (categorical exclusions) to facilitate logging.
- November 26, 2025: Commerce Department to report on the national security impacts of timber imports.
- December 6, 2025: Interior to consider re-establishing NEPA exemptions for timber thinning and salvage logging.
Our forests, wildlife, and communities depend on responsible stewardship, and we remain dedicated to ensuring their future."
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By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. The production of timber, lumber, paper, bioenergy, and other wood products (timber production) is critical to our Nation’s well-being. Timber production is essential for crucial human activities like construction and energy production. Furthermore, as recent disasters demonstrate, forest management and wildfire risk reduction projects can save American lives and communities.
The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers. Our inability to fully exploit our domestic timber supply has impeded the creation of jobs and prosperity, contributed to wildfire disasters, degraded fish and wildlife habitats, increased the cost of construction and energy, and threatened our economic security. These onerous Federal policies have forced our Nation to rely upon imported lumber, thus exporting jobs and prosperity and compromising our self-reliance. It is vital that we reverse these policies and increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security.
Sec. 2. Directives to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture.
(a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS), respectively, shall each issue new or updated guidance regarding tools to facilitate increased timber production and sound forest management, reduce time to deliver timber, and decrease timber supply uncertainty, such as the Good Neighbor Authority described in 16 U.S.C. 2113a, stewardship contracting pursuant to 16 U.S.C. 6591c, and agreements or contracts with Indian tribes under the Tribal Forest Protection Act as contemplated by 25 U.S.C. 3115a. The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall also each submit to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget any legislative proposals that would expand authorities to improve timber production and sound forest management.
(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, shall complete a strategy on USFS and BLM forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1536) to improve the speed of approving forestry projects. The Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the FWS, shall also examine any applicable existing authorities that would permit executive departments and agencies (agencies) to delegate consultation requirements under section 7 of the ESA to other agencies and, if necessary, provide a legislative proposal to ensure consultation is streamlined.
(c) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall together submit to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, a plan that sets a target for the annual amount of timber per year to be offered for sale over the next 4 years from Federal lands managed by the BLM and the USFS, measured in millions of board feet.
(d) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, through the Directors of the FWS and the BLM, and the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Chief of the USFS, shall complete the Whitebark Pine Rangewide Programmatic Consultation under section 7 of the ESA.
(e) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture shall consider and, if appropriate and consistent with applicable law, adopt categorical exclusions administratively established by other agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and reduce unnecessarily lengthy processes and associated costs related to administrative approvals for timber production, forest management, and wildfire risk reduction treatments.
(f) Within 280 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall consider and, if appropriate and consistent with applicable law, establish a new categorical exclusion for timber thinning and re-establish a categorical exclusion for timber salvage activities.
Sec. 3. Streamlined Permitting. All relevant agencies shall eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production. Additionally, all relevant agencies shall take all necessary and appropriate steps consistent with applicable law to suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.
Sec. 4. Endangered Species Committee. (a) Agencies are directed to use, to the maximum extent permissible under applicable law, the ESA regulations on consultations in emergencies to facilitate the Nation’s timber production. The Secretary of the Interior, as Chairman of the Endangered Species Committee, shall ensure a prompt and efficient review of all submissions to such committee, to include identification of any legal deficiencies, in order to ensure the timely consideration of exemption applications and, where possible, to resolve such applications before the deadlines set by the ESA.
(b) Federal members of the Endangered Species Committee, or their designees, shall coordinate to develop and submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, that identifies obstacles to domestic timber production infrastructure specifically deriving from implementation of the ESA and recommends procedural, regulatory, and interagency improvements.
(c) The Secretary of the Interior shall ensure that the Director of the FWS, or the Director’s authorized representative, is available to consult promptly with agencies and to take other appropriate action concerning the applicability of the ESA’s emergency regulations. The Secretary of Commerce shall ensure that the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, or the Assistant Administrator’s authorized representative, is available for such consultation and to take such other action as may assist in applying the ESA’s emergency regulations.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE
March 1, 2025.
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