Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Trump moves to increase logging on public lands
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Monday, March 3, 2025
Logging project at Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona. USDA ([link removed])
President Donald Trump signed an executive order ([link removed]) directing federal agencies to find ways to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to increase timber production across 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands.
Trump also called to convene a committee nicknamed the “God Squad ([link removed]) ” that can override the Endangered Species Act so that development or other projects can proceed even if they might result in an extinction of a species. These directives follow recommendations found in Project 2025, which called for increasing timber production as a way to reduce wildfire risk.
Scientists say that increased timber production is not a solution to wildfires. Climate change and drought are what make wildfires bigger and more destructive, and forest thinning can actually increase wildfire intensity by reducing shade from the forest canopy and changing the forest’s microclimate.
“They’re not hiding the ball,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley ([link removed]) , a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice. “It’s just about trying to cut as much [of] our forests as possible to line the pockets of timber industry executives.”
Judge blocks Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Office of Personnel Management ([link removed]) to rescind the directives that initiated the mass firing of probationary workers at more than two dozen agencies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the terminations were probably illegal, stating that ([link removed]) “the Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.” The ruling ([link removed]) temporarily pauses the firings, but it is unclear if federal workers who have already been let go can return to their jobs.
** Quick hits
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Trump order calls for immediate expansion of timber production
UPI ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | USA Today ([link removed])
How DOGE threatens the Forest Service and public lands
High Country News ([link removed])
Protesters flood national parks to express outrage over job cuts
New York Times ([link removed]) | 9News ([link removed]) | BBC ([link removed]) | NBC ([link removed]) | Bozeman Daily Chronicle ([link removed]) | Moab Times-Independent ([link removed]) | KDVR ([link removed]) | San Francisco Chronicle
([link removed]) | Arizona Republic ([link removed]) | CBS Colorado ([link removed]) | Good Morning America ([link removed])
A rogue ranger is documenting every National Park Service firing
SFGATE ([link removed])
Feds pause $50 million Biden-era investment in Great Salt Lake
Utah News Dispatch ([link removed])
Editorial: Utah officials should stand against arbitrary firing of National Park Service workers
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Trump fired these expert Interior staffers. Here’s what they say
E&E News ([link removed])
California Tribe enters first-of-its-kind agreement with the state to practice cultural burns
Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” The attack on the national parks must be seen as an attempt to first devalue them, then close them or turn them over to private ownership, ownership motivated by short-term profit, not pride and stewardship.”
—Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board ([link removed])
** Picture This
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[link removed]
@usinterior ([link removed])
Floof fact: A baby porcupine is called a porcupette!
Born with soft quills, they toughen up as they grow. By adulthood, porcupines have around 30,000 quills—perfect for defense and staying warm!
Photo by @glacierbaynps ([link removed])
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