We have been fighting land-use issues at nauseum, or so it seems. If it isn't the state, it's the Federal Government and that is where we find ourselves at this time. This time our National Forests are under attack by two federal sources, our own U.S. Congress and President Trump's Executive Branch. The following is a letter sent to U.S. Senators.

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Dear Senator:

Our Nation’s Forests are facing threats from two fronts within our federal government: one Congressional and the other Administrative, straight from President Trump’s desk. The U.S. Congress passed a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives called “Fix Our Forest Act”, HR 471. In the U.S. Senate, this bill had recently been negotiated by Senator Hickenlooper, Padilla, Curtis, and Sheehy to become S. 1462, introduced in the Senate on April 10, 2025.

This bill, even with modifications, follows the concurrent intent and purpose of HR 471, and obviously the misnomer name associated with HR 471 shows the arrogance of our society in a couple of ways. One is that is assumes our forests need fixing and two, it assumes that we can fix it. Both are false assumptions which in and of itself highlight the fact that this bill should be defeated.

On the other front, President Trump has signed into effect on March 1, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14225, “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production”. In response to that EO, the United States Department of Agriculture has issued a Secretary’s Memorandum 1078-006 on April 3, 2025, entitled “Increasing Timber Production and Designating an Emergency Situation on National Forest System Lands”.

Both documents declare there is an emergency within our Nation’s Forest, but we declare that too is a lie. Our Nation’s Forest policy on federal land should not be mischaracterized for ideological purposes. Both attempts would have long-term disastrous effects on the ecological integrity of our forests, the biodiversity of our land, while at the same time, minimizing and manipulating our democratic process.

In addressing the Congressional legislation, there are many faults with this bill even after compromising efforts were made. This legislation does little to address issues such as defensible space, emergency planning, and an all-important facet of home hardening. Instead, this bill focuses on partisan issues such as bypassing bedrock fundamental laws that protect our lands and wildlife. The public is tired of legislation that skirts solutions and focuses on partisan ideology in the name of solutions.

Why do solutions to a problem always have to incorporate the most divisive and partisan viewpoints? Why not choose solutions that actually address a problem without creating new ones? Even after Senators Hickenlooper, Sheehy, Curtis, and Padilla have tried to negotiate a more bipartisan approach, this bill still falls short of what is truly needed to make this legislation meaningful and effective to its goal. In addition, it undermines sound bedrock principles such as NEPA, ESA, and NHPA/tribal consultation.

This bill, HR 471 in the Senate needs to remove sections 106,121, and 122. This bill as written will destroy valuable habitat, biodiversity, increase noxious weeds, increase road density, fragment already fragmented wildlife habitat and exacerbate wildfires by drying out the forests with more wind, more sun, less canopy cover, and more runoff, etc., etc. This legislation would still open millions of acres of federal land to logging without scientific or public review. This bill simply pushes the American citizen out in the cold as far as having a say in their government and how our forests are being managed.

The President’s EO is equally devastating to our forests. President Trump’s agenda is trying to open more than 112 million acres of federal forests to logging. If successful, this once again would devastate wildlife habitat, biodiversity, watershed protection, and much more including the mitigating potential of fighting climate change through carbon sequestration. The costs of losing our forests would be an enormous loss to society and the intrinsic value of life as we know it upon our landscape.

Another aspect of the President’s EO would be the loss, the scientific loss of mature and old growth forests. The same climatic changes described above under Fix Our Forests Act would also occur here under the President’s EO. The forests would have an increased fire risk for generations to come if these acts were to be followed. Trees could be felled that potentially possess a genetic resistance to many diseases and drought. The lack of science oversight would be removed leaving our forests tattered and vulnerable, most likely never having the potential to return to their native state because of climate change.

This EO and the Secretary’s memo does not even mention climate change, but states that our forests are in an emergency crisis. They do not provide evidence for that emergency. These unwarranted acts overlook the benefits that forests provide such as clean water, clean air, habitat protection and the ability of a forest to sequester carbon. These desires by the administration are solely for the purpose of increasing and speeding up the process of removing large amounts of timber without public notice or objection. In doing so, they at least violate the intent of NEPA and other federal regulations. It is an undemocratic process in what they are proposing. It is undemocratic in their intent and unscientific in their management.

We urge all Senators to vote against S.1462 and we urge the Senate to do their oversight duty and challenge the President’s actions under the Executive Order. There is no emergency in our forest to justify such acts. It is once again, a knee-jerk reaction to a condition where wiser heads should and could prevail. 

Sincerely,

Clinton Nagel, President

Gallatin Wildlife Association