A FORWARDER STACKS fresh-cut logs on the side of a timber road in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. (Glen Moberg/Wisconsin Public Radio)

The Trump administration is speeding up environmental reviews of logging projects on more than half of the country’s national forests, including a large part of the western Upper Peninsula, in the vicinity of Ottawa National Forest, and several smaller areas in the eastern Upper Peninsula are also included.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins issued an emergency designation April 4 on more than 112 million acres of national forest land, citing risks from wildfires, insects and disease. The move seeks to align with President Donald Trump’s order to boost logging and reduce reliance on foreign lumber.

Rollins used authority established under the bipartisan infrastructure law to issue the emergency designation, and the Biden administration previously sought to increase logging to address wildfire threats due to climate change. The move allows the Forest Service within USDA to engage in faster permitting and roll back federal environmental regulations.

Ron Eckstein is the co-chair of the public lands and forestry work group for Wisconsin’s Green Fire. He said he doesn’t think existing federal regulations are too burdensome for loggers. “We can produce the timber we need to produce. We can protect against wildfire using the (National Environmental Policy Act) process and Endangered Species Act and still produce forest products, yet protecting all the other values of the national forests, like wildlife, watershed, recreation, including timber,” he said.

Over the next five years, the Trump administration aims to increase timber production 25% across the agency. A national strategy will be developed within the next month. “I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive,” Rollins said in a statement.

Logging advocates say move will reduce delays, improve forests. Scott Dane, executive director of the American Loggers Council, represents about 10,000 logging companies and about 50,000 employees nationwide in the timber industry. He said the memo and Trump’s order is a big step forward to reversing policy that has resulted in less forest management and unhealthy forests. “(Agencies are) not abandoning any requirements — legal requirements regarding protection and the Endangered Species Act and NEPA and other things — but things do need to be streamlined,” Dane said. “They’ve been delayed at the national forest level for years at a time.”

Rollins’ memo prevents groups from challenging logging proposals before the agency issues a decision on them. Environmental and conservation groups have frequently challenged and delayed projects seeking approval. Dane said mills have gone out of business due to unstable timber supplies, arguing many could handle additional capacity. “It has the potential to improve forest management on national forests, improve the health of the national forests, as well as create opportunities for the rural communities and jobs that depend on the national forests,” Dane said.

The Trump administration is seeking to use stewardship contracts or Good Neighbor Authority agreements to ramp up logging. The Department of Natural Resources has said it’s conducted just shy of 200 timber sales spanning 32,000 acres under an agreement with the agency in the past decade.

As the Trump administration seeks to boost logging, reports state the Forest Service is planning to consolidate its nine regional offices into three. As many as 7,000 agency employees could be laid off under a reduction in force.

“It’s inconsistent for the Trump administration to lay off or fire so many people in the National Forest System at the very same time declaring that there should be increased timber production,” Eckstein said. “It doesn’t seem to work out.”