The Trump administration has raised logging quotas 25% in America’s national forests as part of a bid to increase timber production in the face of tariffs — and to prevent fires by removing fuel and creating firebreaks.
In a move that could substantially reshape California’s natural landscape, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an emergency order Friday to accelerate timber harvesting across nearly 113 million acres of national forests.
The order is part of a broader initiative to address what the Trump administration has called a “forest health crisis.”
The new order serves two purposes. One is to control fires. President Donald Trump said in January that the Los Angeles wildfires were partly caused by California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s refusal to clear brush and dead trees.
The other purpose, though unstated, is likely to increase the supply of lumber and head off potential price increases due to tariffs on Canadian lumber, which could have a cascading effect on the American construction industry.
Environmental groups slammed the move, while the logging industry welcomed the Trump administration’s decision.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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