Recent federal policy changes are aimed at increasing timber sales in our national forests. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi spoke with a research ecologist and wilderness advocate about how these directives could play out locally.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture declared an "Emergency Situation Determination" on nearly 60% of national forest lands across the country. In the memo, the secretary cites President Donald Trump's executive order calling for the expansion of American timber production, as well as wildfire, insect, and disease threats to forests, as justification for this action.
The emergency designation streamlines the process for U.S. Forest Service officials to 'treat' targeted areas. Treatment can include actions like commercial logging projects, replanting fire-impacted areas, and the salvage of dead trees. Following the memo, the acting associate chief of the U.S. Forest Service sent a letter to regional foresters directing them to increase the amount of timber offered to logging companies by 25% over the next four to five years.
The streamlining of this process can take a number of forms. In another guidance letter, regional foresters were instructed to "seek to minimize process requirements like scoping" and "reduce the number of acres surveyed" when analyzing projects.
ELLEN STUART-HAENTJENS: It's removing critical guardrails.
Ellen Stuart-Haentjens is the executive director of the Virginia Wilderness Committee. She previously worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. She explained that scoping goes well beyond conservationists just objecting to a project. It's a collaborative process by which organizations like hers and members of the public work together with the Forest Service to tailor projects like timber sales and prescribed burns.
STUART-HAENTJENS: A lot of times, it's not the entire project that we might oppose … but there might be certain parts of it that could be improved, or potentially there's an environmental test that hasn't been done yet in that area that needs to be done as part of the due process. …. We work, really, with them to make sure that these projects are done responsibly. And especially when the forest service is understaffed … you need to have other partners that have on-the-ground knowledge.
If the scoping and public comment periods end, and stakeholders are still dissatisfied with the project, then they can file a formal objection and have a hearing with the forest rangers. It's that entire process of dialogue, information-gathering, and challenge that the emergency designation seeks to circumvent.
Stuart–Haentjens reviewed the map which outlines the areas now labeled with this emergency designation. In our backyard, it includes large swaths of the George Washington, Jefferson, and Monongahela National Forests. Stuart–Haentjens said the map was created using two datasets – one showing wildfire risk levels, which were "low" or "moderate" in Virginia. The other flags areas that have insect or disease problems. That includes forests where the trees are healthy except for one species that's hit by a specific threat, such as beech bark disease or emerald ash borer.
STUART-HAENTJENS: They've been taken and put into this context for the memo of, "here are all these forests that present all these risks, and now there is an emergency." … They didn't look in there and say, "okay, so which of these areas now on our federal forest lands … are protected, like Ramseys Draft Wilderness and Saint Mary's Wilderness?" It was my read that they're just leaving that up, now, to the regional foresters, to hopefully just know all of this. And I do have a lot of confidence in our regional foresters and our rangers. However, they're also facing a lot of pressure to increase logging, and there's also this clause in the memo … that translates to … 50% of the project area can also include forests that are not supposedly under threat.
As we previously reported, the map appears to include many recreation areas, such as Switzer Lake, Hone Quarry, Fridley Gap, Sherando Lake, Seneca Rocks, and Spruce Knob. It includes places like the proposed Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area, which has been decades of stakeholder collaboration in the making and is awaiting congressional approval.
STUART-HAENTJENS: I don't think our regional foresters want to damage these areas, and I think that they'll do what they can not to, but they do have to increase logging by 25%. They're going to have to make compromises on what lands they decide to log and manage.
How much are we already logging in our national forests? Based on federal data available online, the Forest Service sold timber on over 6,000 acres of Monongahela National Forest land in the past four years. We don't have acreage numbers for the George Washington National Forest, but they sold close to the same amount of timber by volume in that four-year period.
STUART-HAENTJENS: They want to increase logging and timber sales in our national forests with a Forest Service that just lost a huge portion of its workforce, and was already understaffed prior to these layoffs.
ProPublica has reported that at least 2,000 probationary Forest Service employees were terminated in February. We reached out to the agency for an interview and were emailed a statement which reads, in part, "The USDA Forest Service stands ready to fulfill the Secretary’s vision of productive and resilient national forests outlined in the memorandum."
STUART-HAENTJENS: These lands are public lands. They're for the American public. … Our state organizations and our citizens should have a say, and be able to give input, on how they're managed.
How our regional foresters implement these new orders remains to be seen. The agency said they do not have forest-level information to share at this time.
