President Trump signs executive order unleashing forest management after LA wildfires
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday that looks to unleash forest management efforts following this year's devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
The order takes steps for quicker federal permitting approvals of forestry projects under the Endangered Species Act so that clearing brush, timber removals and other projects aren't delayed by environmental and other regulatory reviews, according to a White House summary of the order reviewed by Paste BN.
Trump has long blamed California's environmental polices for forest mismanagement contributing to the state's wildfires including January's destructive wildfires in Los Angeles that killed at least 29 people. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has defended his state's forest and land management efforts, pointing to $2.5 billion in state investments on this front.
The order, which is likely to face push back from environmental groups, also seeks to increase domestic production of timber by streamlining the regulatory process for timber thinning ‒ whereby full rows of trees are removed ‒ and timber salvaging. The latter refers to removing damaged trees after wildfires or other natural disasters to recover value on the market from the timber.
In addition to expanding forest management, the White House said the goal is to lower costs of housing construction and lumber by increasing the domestic supply of timber to reduce U.S. reliance of timber imports from Canada, Brazil and Germany.
"Our disastrous timber and lumber policies ‒ a legacy of the previous administration ‒ trigger wildfires and degrade our fish and wildlife habitat," Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, told reporters. "They drive up construction and housing costs and impoverish America through large trade deficits that results from exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil dumping lumber into our markets at the expense of both our economic prosperity and national security. That stops today."
Trump also signed an order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explore potential tariffs on tariff and lumber imports. It comes after Trump has already imposed tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports and promised new duties on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and other products.
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