President Donald Trump's administration has rolled back environmental protections around future logging projects on more than half of U.S. national forests under an emergency designation issued Friday that cites the dangers of wildfires.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/35583702

Whether the move will boost lumber supplies as Trump envisioned in an executive order last month remains to be seen. Former President Joe Biden’s administration also sought more logging in public forests to combat fires, which are worsening as the world gets hotter, yet U.S. Forest Service timber sales stayed relatively flat under his tenure.

It exempts affected forests from an objection process that allows outside groups, tribes and local governments to challenge logging proposals at the administrative level before they are finalized. It also narrows the number of alternatives federal officials can consider when weighing logging projects.