White House Set to Roll Back Protections for Nearly 60 Million Acres of National Forests

What to Know

• The Trump administration is moving to revoke Clinton-era forestland protections covering nearly 60 million acres of national forest. The administration reasons that logging activity would reduce wildfire risk and stimulate the local economies of these forested sites.
• Environmental critics have argued that these areas are remote and don't typically burn to the scale of the wildfires seen near cities in California, Colorado and Hawaii and that their remoteness would make them hard to develop.
• Restrictions over the years have moved timber production to private lands, so reopening previously protected lands won't necessarily stimulate a mass return. American Logger Council's executive director disagrees and is hopeful that reopening the forestlands would decrease the amount of mill closures across the country.

Why It Matters

Rolling back decades long protections of national forest land threatens to dismiss years worth of public input in favor of roadless rules in the targeted forestlands. According to environmental groups, the administration's goal of undoing this protection sets a precedent which weakens and makes vulnerable similar safeguards in place for other public lands across the country while timber industry representatives say it will boost the economy.