The ‘Fix Our Forests Act' is no fix

Yahoo

21-05-2025

The act isn't forest management. It's a corporate giveaway. (Photo: iStock/Getty Images)
As a proud Nevadan and Lake Tahoe resident who cherishes our public lands and forests, I feel compelled to speak out against the so-called 'Fix Our Forests Act' (FOFA). Don't let the title fool you! This federal legislation is no fix. In fact, it's a reckless attempt to hand over the keys to our national forests to corporate logging interests under the guise of wildfire prevention. If passed, FOFA would open the floodgates to massive, unchecked logging projects that threaten the very landscapes we hold dear in Nevada and across the country.
Let's start with the most alarming piece: FOFA would enable a Trump executive order to ramp up commercial logging across nearly 60% of America's national forests. This is not hyperbole. It's a direct result of language in FOFA that weakens environmental protections and strips the public of its voice in managing these lands. The bill allows agencies to bypass crucial environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Incredibly, it even permits NEPA reviews to happen after logging projects have already been completed, undermining the entire purpose of environmental oversight.
It gets worse. FOFA dramatically expands the size of 'Categorical Exclusions' (CEs), administrative loopholes that allow certain forest projects to dodge public review and environmental study. Under FOFA, logging operations up to 10,000 acres (15 square miles) could move forward without any public input. To put that into perspective, that's roughly the size of more than 7,500 football fields, cleared without so much as a town hall meeting. That's not forest management, that's a corporate giveaway.
The bill also advances a deeply flawed narrative: that commercial logging and grazing are effective wildfire mitigation strategies. The science says otherwise. Study after study has shown that the most effective ways to protect communities from wildfire involve local measures, like creating defensible space around homes, hardening buildings against fire, and developing emergency response plans. FOFA includes no funding for these proven strategies. Instead, it funnels energy and attention into large-scale commercial logging, which may actually increase fire risk by removing old-growth trees that are naturally more fire-resistant.
Here in Nevada, we understand the value of healthy, resilient ecosystems. Our forests aren't just scenic backdrops. They're critical to our water supplies, our recreation, and our identity. The Fix Our Forests Act threatens that balance. It's a Trojan horse for deregulation, designed to sideline science, slash public involvement, and clear the way for extractive industries. Worse yet, it aligns directly with recent moves by the Trump administration to prioritize timber extraction over environmental stewardship. Just days before FOFA was introduced in the Senate, Trump's Secretary of Agriculture released a memo implementing an executive order to massively expand logging across federal lands.
This is the same administration that has gutted staff at the U.S. Forest Service and slashed funding for wildfire prevention. If President Trump and the U.S. Congress truly cared about protecting communities, we'd see investments in firefighter support, forest restoration, and climate resilience, not just more clear-cutting. Instead, his executive order and FOFA combine to create a dangerous one-two punch: under-resourced forest agencies forced to chase arbitrary timber targets, at the expense of meaningful wildfire mitigation.
Let's be clear: climate change, not tree density, is the root driver of the catastrophic wildfires we've seen across the West. Rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and increasingly erratic weather patterns are drying out our forests and setting the stage for firestorms. Logging our way out of this problem is not just shortsighted, it's counterproductive. More logging won't bring back the rain. What we need is bold, climate-smart leadership that prioritizes long-term forest health and community safety over short-term industry profits.
Unfortunately, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) and Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-02) cosponsored FOFA in the House, and Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) voted for the bill. Congresswoman Dina Titus (NV-01) was Nevada's lone 'nay.' The bill will now make its way through the U.S. Senate and Nevada's senators haven't yet revealed how they plan to vote.
Whether we're talking about FOFA or Trump's executive orders, the bottom line is the same: this is an attack on our public lands. These are lands that belong to all of us, not just the timber lobby or political donors. Nevada's senators, and senators across the country for that matter, should reject FOFA in its current form. We need our representatives to stop looking at our public lands with dollar signs in their eyes. Instead, they should champion legislation that supports fire-resilient communities through real solutions: funding for home hardening, local emergency planning, defensible space projects, and prescribed fire treatments guided by science and Indigenous knowledge.
We need forest policy rooted in stewardship, not exploitation. Nevada deserves better, and so do the forests we all depend on.