President Trump Signs Order To Expedite Timber, Lumber Output

On March 1, President Donald Trump signed a far-reaching executive order directing agency heads to develop ways to increase the output of timber from federal lands while promoting increased lumber production from U.S. companies after tariffs were added to Canadian lumber coming into the U.S. The order, titled “Freeing Our Forests,” directs multiple officials, including the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service Chief, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Secretary of Commerce, (through the assistant administrator for fisheries), to propose ways to expedite production while also improving forest management in ways that are in compliance with existing legislation such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Tribal Forestry Protection Act. Key provisions include:

• 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. The order also directs the Secretary of the Interior 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.”

• 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.

• The order also directs the Secretary of Commerce to launch an investigation into whether significant lumber imports provide a threat to national security. Considering that jump-starting and increasing timber sales is going to require an investment in manpower and resources, one caveat to the order is that its implementation is “subject to the availability of appropriations” to fully reach its goals.