MEMO: What to know about the ongoing attacks to the Forest Service
California's Shasta-Trinity National Forest was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905.
Jason Smith
As the summer tourism and wildfire seasons approach, the Forest Service remains a target for ruthless dismantling by the Trump admin and Congress
No other national public lands agency is being gutted quite like the Forest Service.
The current administration is whittling the agency down to focus on providing more timber and minerals, regardless of the impact on communities, fragile ecosystems, clean water supply and wildfire risk. These attacks aren’t just coming from the executive office, but also at the whims of DOGE and from the halls of Congress.
The realities of dismembering a 120-year-old agency are diminished access to public forests, sacked capacity to mitigate intensifying wildfire, clearcuts in the places that sustain our clean air and water and healthy ecosystems and silenced community voices on forest management decisions.
This memo outlines the major policies the Trump administration and Congress are pushing to massively reduce capacity at the Forest Service to combat the wildfire crisis and properly manage the National Forest System.
25% increase of authorized logging on Forest Service lands
Right now, lawmakers are trying to force through what some are calling “the most extreme, anti-environmental bill in American history" aka: the House of Natural Resources Committee budget reconciliation bill, which has passed that committee, but failed to pass through the House Budget Committee, as part of the larger package.
In addition to the last-minute public lands sell-offs amendment, the budget reconciliation text proposed several other dangerous precedents for the future of our shared public lands and forests, including directing the Secretary of Agriculture to increase timber harvests on National Forest System lands by 25% above 2024 timber harvest levels, some of which could come from currently protected roadless areas.
63% budget cuts and moving fire out of the Forest Service
The Trump administration’s budget outline for 2026 offered staggering cuts to the agency. Of them is a proposed 63% budget reduction at the Forest Service, by slashing funding for research, eliminating the bipartisan supported Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, shifting Forest Service activities to the states, and taking all firefighting responsibility away from the Forest Service and putting it under the Interior Department instead.
Moving firefighting to a different agency would prioritize fire suppression over critically important work like prescribed fire and fuels reduction which temper fire severity and restore fire's natural role on the land. Shifting firefighting out of the Forest Service and focusing solely on fire suppression would further escalate the wildfire crisis and could lead to catastrophic outcomes for firefighters and communities.
Greenlighting "emergency” logging on more than half of National Forest Lands
Back in March, President Trump signed an Executive Order, following the firing of thousands of federal workers, that will greenlight reckless logging and sidestep critical environmental laws.
Just a month later, Secretary Rollins issued a Secretarial Order that declared nearly 60 percent of all national forest lands to be in a state of “emergency”, allowing reduced public involvement and environmental safeguards on logging decisions. The order grants short-cuts to numerous environmental laws, such as those designed to protect endangered species and cultural resources, under the guise of an “emergency” to increase timber production.
Fast-tracking poison pill legislation that limits judicial review
Communities deserve real solutions to the wildfire crisis. But more logging in the backcountry, more roads, less public input and fewer environmental safeguards isn't the solution. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what parts of the Fix Our Forests Act, which has already passed in the House and now is on the fast-track to pass the Senate, would do. By circumventing judicial review and public involvement, the Fix Our Forests Act is the wrong approach as the Trump administration guts the agency's ability to manage our public forests sustainably.
Firing essential agency staff
It’s no secret that the Trump Administration and DOGE are finding any way to chip away at the Forest Service, ruthlessly pushing out and firing essential federal workers who keep our National Forests operating. More “Reductions in Force” are expected. The next round of cuts could target the research arm of the agency – made up of the same people who ensure decisions on our public forests are backed by science.
To get in touch with forest policy experts and scientists who can speak directly to the issues outlined below, contact edenny@tws.org. We have staff across the country who can speak to local impacts in your state and connect you with sources.
