Update: Fix Our Forest Act

Senate Agricultural Committee Hearing tomorrow, May 6

Here is a brief update to let you know that the Fix Our Forest Act will receive a hearing tomorrow by the Senate Agricultural Committee. Markups have been made, but none of them ameliorate the main problems with this bill—that it reduces NEPA requirements and hampers citizen oversight over large areas of forest, that it limits citizen ability to challenge unlawful practices by the USFS and reduces Endangered Species Act provisions.

Here is a list of Democratic Senators on that committee: Klobuchar, Bennet, Smith, Durbin, Booker, Luján, Warnock, Welch, Fetterman, Schiff, Slotkin. Now is the time to contact your Senate representatives and tell them to oppose FOFA, whoever they are, but especially if they are one of the names above. Our forests need us.

And just to underline the potential consequences. This bill not only disempowers citizen oversight over the Forest Service, in does so under TRUMP’S Forest Service. It provides him statutory authority which he currently lacks to carry out the reckless logging called for in his Executive Order, named Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production.

Senate democrats need to know we expect them to stand up to the “log it or it will burn” hysteria and protect not only our forests but our legal rights to defend them.

Following is some information from Lauren Andersen at Oregon Wild, along with a toolkit, to help people take action. There’s still time to stop this, but we have to act quickly.

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Hi Folks:

The Fix Our Forests Act has been introduced in the Senate with bipartisan support and there is a real risk of this bill becoming law. The bill would:

• Make it easier to avoid environmental laws like NEPA and ESA — the bill uses emergency authorities to allow NEPA consultation after a project has been completed.

• Allow even bigger CE's — 10,000 acres or 15 square miles — basically removing all public oversight of projects on federal forest land.

• Help to advance the narrative that commercial logging (and grazing) will protect communities from wildfire. The science is clear — we should be investing in proven community protection measures like defensible space, home hardening, and emergency planning. The bill does not provide a dime for these efforts.

Here is a toolkit to help you and your community push back on this harmful bill. I’m also attaching an in-depth analysis of the three most dangerous aspects of the Senate FOFA bill from Earthjustice.

I’m also sharing a new resource — NRDC compiled this analysis of the Sec. Rollins memo focused on implementing Trump’s logging EO’s. Scroll down to see the state by state impacts. Please elevate these with the media and share with your networks. For example:

• Over 11.2 million acres in Oregon are impacted

• 64% of national forests in Oregon are impacted

• Over 1 million acres of wilderness in Oregon are impacted

• 47% - fraction of wilderness areas in Oregon impacted

• Over 1.5 million acres of roadless areas in Oregon are impacted

• 76% - fraction of Oregon roadless areas impacted

• Over 1.6 million acres in Oregon of critical habitat impacted

• Over 30% - fraction of Oregon critical habitat impacted

Note that these estimates only capture a fraction of the true area put at risk. The memo specifies that a mere 50 percent of the project area must be within the emergency designation in order for the entire project to be allowed to bypass critical environmental review and public input, so the actual impacts are likely millions more acres than represented here.

Action Items:

• Use this Fix Our Forests toolkit to:

  • Submit LTE’s and op-eds

  • Email, call, and write to your Senators asking that they oppose the bill

• Use NRDC’s Logging Sec. Memo Analysis with the media + share with your networks.

• Check out this toolkit on Trump’s logging executive orders

What we’re reading / listening to this week:

• Public lands deserve management, not mayhem (Gunnison Country Times)

• My journey through the forest tells a story of fragility and resilience (Seattle Times)

• Trump targeted 5 national forests in WA for accelerated logging. So what happens now? (Seattle Times)

Fact Sheets + other resources

• Trump logging executive orders (summary link)

• Subsequent Secretary Rollins memo (summary link)

• NRDC’s Logging Sec. Memo Analysis

• How the Forest Service Is Cutting Forest Protections to Boost Logging in the Pacific Northwest (Storymap - WildEarth Guardians)

Thank you for all you do to protect our forests and climate,

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