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3/11/2025
WT Staff
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Thursday, March 20 2025 227 pm PDT
USDA Director Rollins weighs in on the shift in priorities for the National Forest Service
Executive Orders from the White House shift public policies and priorities under the America First anthem, prioritizing resource development in oil and gas, metals mining and timber production. The Withdrawal from the trade arena tightens up the arena boundaries within which raw materials must be extracted and refined, where the goods must be produced and the crops must be grown. As the policy pendulum swings heavily toward expansion of domestic industry, 331 million people in the contiguous land area must be assured of clean drinking water supply.
Executive Order March 1, 2025 directs US Department of Agriculture's National Forest Service to open timber blocks for harvesting. Along with the new policy, a change in leadership, Tom Schultz called up from an industry role to replace outgoing Chief Randy Moore. Schultz brings decades of forestry and mining development experience to the management of public forest lands.
USDA Director, Brooke Rollins announced the appointment of the new Chief of Forest Service just ahead of the EO to expand domestic timber production. Rollins is quoted in USDA press announcement Feb 27, “Tom is the right person to lead the Forest Service right now, and I know he will fight every day to restore America’s national forests,” said Secretary Rollins. “Together, Tom and the incredible employees at the Forest Service will work to execute the agenda of President Donald J. Trump to make America’s forests healthy and productive again.”
The priority for the new Chief of the Forest Service is to streamline federal policies to "enhance forest management, reduce wildfire risks, and decrease reliance on imported timber", as per the fact sheet in support of the March 1, 2025 order.
The managed area is 193 million acres of forest, including 106,000 acres of old growth redwoods in California. The World Heritage Site and International Biosphere were taken out of timber production more than half a century ago, "to protect existing irreplaceable Redwood National Park resources from damaging upslope and upstream land uses, to provide a land base sufficient to insure preservation of significant examples of the coastal redwood in accordance with the original intent of Congress, and to establish a more meaningful Redwood National Park for the use and enjoyment of visitors."
A fifth of America's clean water supply originates within the national forests and grasslands. These natural resources shelter vital drinking water supplies from industrial and municipal point source contamination. WaterToday reached out to the USDA for comment on specific plans for timber development and how source water in the path of renewed logging activity will be protected.
A spokesperson authorized for USDA supplied a response via email indicating that it is too early to speak of specific plans.
"Secretary Rollins fully supports President Trump's efforts to increase timber production across national forests nationwide. Providing a sustainable supply of domestic timber has been one of the core missions of the USDA Forest Service since its inception 120 years ago. Timber fuels the industries that build our homes, businesses, and support prosperous rural communities.
Timber harvest not only helps the people and communities we serve to grow and thrive, but it is also a critical part of active forest management, which improves forest health by clearing overgrown, unhealthy forest stands, reducing wildfire risk, improving fish and wildlife habitats, and much more.
Under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, USDA will continue to meet its commitments to protecting vulnerable wildlife while also meeting the President's directive to provide the nation with abundant domestic timber, unhampered by burdensome, heavy-handed policies that neither ensure American economic security nor protection of natural resources."
The USDA did not comment on the matter of source water protection.
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