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The Trump administration has removed protections for over half of the National Forest System via the issuance of an emergency order related to wildfire risk. The order covers more than 110 million acres of forest land and will fast-track timber production by removing National Environmental Policy Act regulations in the name of wildfire mitigation. But the memo comes on the heels of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump to expand timber production in the country by 25 percent.
“Nobody should be fooled into thinking that this secretarial order or Trump’s executive order are anything more than a handout to the industry to basically log-baby-log on our public lands,” Randi Spivak, public lands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Inside Climate News.
The Trump administration also recently hollowed out the Forest Service's ranks, including firing many potential firefighters. About 700 Forest Service employees terminated in mid-February’s “Valentine’s Day massacre” were red-card-carrying staffers, according to reporting in ProPublica, which means they held other full-time jobs in the agency but had been trained to aid firefighting crews.
Gutting of Park Service continues
The Trump administration is continuing to shrink the National Park Service's workforce despite the Interior department's recent order requiring parks facing closures due to understaffing to fully reopen. The National Park Conservation Association obtained an internal memo detailing a buyout offer that runs from April 4 to 9 and applies to most Park Service employees with some exceptions. Over 700 Park Service employees have already taken buyouts in response to the Trump administration's "Fork in the Road" memo, and the agency is still in the process of trying to hire thousands of seasonal workers after the Trump administration rescinded those job offers in January.
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The administration’s relentless attacks are crushing the Park Service... Forcing another round of buyouts is yet another reckless action by the administration that will have long-lasting, irreversible impacts on this generation of National Park Service staff. Who will care for our national parks if they keep pushing out staff?”
