‘Ill-advised and unwise': Critics question plan to open California forests to major logging

Yahoo

08-04-2025

The USDA's order for the U.S. Forest Service to increase lumber production by 25% is being panned as both unwise and infeasible in Southern California's sprawling national forests due to a lack of quality wood and nearby sawmills.
The April 4 emergency declaration by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins is accompanied by a map that shows nearly 113 million acres of forest land across the U.S. subject to the mandated increase, including the Angeles, San Bernardino, Los Padres and Cleveland national forests.
But those four forests were heavily logged from World War I through the Korean War for soldier barracks and equipment needs, and then to support rapidly growing post-war housing markets, said Gary Earney, who managed timber sales and other multiple use permits for the San Bernardino National Forest from 1978 through 2007, and was a consultant to the forest through 2014.
What was left or has reseeded is "junk" wood not suitable for lumber, he said. "Regarding Southern California, I consider it to be ill-advised and unwise, for a number for a number of reasons."
He said while such timber sales could perhaps be increased in Northern California or other healthy forests, even there it would require years of planning, outside bids and proper reseeding to be done in a way that would maintain sustainable woodlands.
But it doesn't appear that deliberative planning will occur, per Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' order. In fact the aim is to do the opposite: to speed up permit reviews to have logging done more quickly using emergency powers.
In her memorandum ordering the immediate timber production increase, she relies on emergency language addressing wildfire risks in forests from the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which "authorizes the Secretary to determine an emergency exists on National Forest System land and adjacent lands if necessary to achieve relief from hazards threatening human health and safety or to mitigate threats to natural resources."
Biden's agriculture secretary used that congressional mandate to designate 250 burned watersheds in forests across the U.S. as at extreme risk, and to skip comprehensive environmental reviews so emergency logging could be done.
Rollins' order more than doubles the previously declared 67 million acres acreage under an "emergency situation determination," adding 78.8 million acres of forests with "declining health," or at risk of increased mortality in the next 15 years due to insect and disease infestation, or hazard trees posing an immediate risk.
That means about 60% of all national forest lands are now under an emergency declaration allowing for speedier logging.
A public lands advocate said via her action, Rollins is decreeing the agency only needs to propose one action for a given logging project, not the typically legally required range offering less and more environmentally harmful options, and also eliminates the public objection process.
"They are after timber," said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which says it will sue to try to stop specific projects under the declaration. "The Angeles National Forest does have a good pine forest component. Up until now there is not much logging on the Angeles, but this order could change that."
Cliff Witt, owner of Witt Hardwoods in Porterville, agreed there was likely "not too much good merchantable timber" in the Southern California forests. But he said a 25% increase in logging is possible from Sequoia National Forest and forests in wetter northern California "it is possible, especially if they let them do it."
Witt, whose son, 27, now runs his sawmill, said he wants a sustainable forest, not one-time clear cuts.
"That's where a guy's got to be selective" about which trees are logged, he said, perhaps leaving old-growth mature trees that can withstand drought in favor of "some of those younger trees that are, you know, 30-inch, 36-inch diameter trees. Those are good, marketable trees."
Pest-infected tree can also be logged and sold for a variety of products, though the quality is not as high as undamaged lumber.
The forest service on April 7 confirmed their strategy.
"The USDA Forest Service stands ready to fulfill the Secretary's vision of productive and resilient national forests outlined in the memorandum," a Region 5 spokesperson said by email. "In alignment with the Secretary's direction, we will streamline forest management efforts, reduce burdensome regulations, and grow partnerships to support economic growth and sustainability."
Region 5 oversees national forests in California and the Hawaiian islands. How the agency goes through with the plan remains to be seen. Earney was blunt with his take on their response, and what it could mean for fire-ravaged Southern California.
"I think that's a lot of high-pressure, steaming hot bovine feces," he said. "Because they know they can't do it in a professional manner that benefits the public."
Earney said he agrees with a post-Eaton fire federal report that says pine trees with any needles remaining should be left in place to try to help prevent mudslides down steep, denuded slopes.
He also said the latest order comes atop decades of funding cuts and "dysfunctional" policies at the agency, as well as historic overuse of regional forests.
"I came down to this area from from the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon, where we had huge, huge timber and logging operations," Earney said. "I came down in 1978 to help sustain that effort down here, but because of all the logging that we had done in support of the previous war efforts, and to support the local housing industry as the population grew down here, we began to run out of what I would call merchantable timber."
He said the timber sale program had to be ended after the last local sawmill shut in 1982, meaning any marketable timber would have to be trucked to Porterville or other Central California locations, at high cost to taxpayers. Renewing such sales now in the four forests also would cause further damage to the already degraded ecosystems.
Some frustrated residents near the Southland's national forests say they do want dead stands and individual trees that are a fire risk removed, including above Wrightwood and around tourist destinations in the San Bernardino mountains, for instance. Bark beetles have ravaged many pine trees and mature live oaks are being killed by invasive borer species.
"That is a legitimate concern," said Earney, who said overzealous fire suppression for decades had also resulted in so-called fuel loading primed to burn. But he said costs also were extremely high for thinning the forest lands, because roads would have to be built to reach many dead tree areas, and the ecological damage would still be high.
"It just would take a lot of money," said Earney, who noted federal forest budgets have shrunk for decades, not increased. If thinning is done, "there's going to be some unavoidable environmental damage to a very fragile forest environment."
In an email explaining his concerns, Earney said the four forests stretching above the Southland "are developing into 'islands' surrounded by urban sprawl. They are critical to watershed production, plant and animal survival and diversity, and public recreation."
He added, "It is true that we need to make many areas much more fire safe. However, in my professional opinion logging will only be a short and long term disaster."
Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun and co-authors USA Today Climate Point. She can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: USDA logging order faces backlash over California national forest plan