Free Republic

**SNIP** Timber once drove the economies of states like Oregon. But forest harvests nosedived beginning in the early 1990s due to stricter environmental regulations, a changing lumber market and other factors. President Donald Trump hopes to reverse that trend by executive fiat, ordering the U.S. Forest Service to ramp up logging on federal lands in what environmental groups like Earthjustice call a "cynical attempt to justify destructive logging." "It's really just about lining the pockets of timber industry executives," Blaine Miller McFeely, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group, told Fox News Digital. The timber slump...

Fix Our Forests Act would open the door to widespread logging and undermine environmental laws. WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA). In a giveaway to the timber industry, the bill – which is presented as a measure against wildfire – could open the door to unlimited logging across millions of acres of national forests, undermining bedrock environmental and public health laws. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) introduced companion legislation that passed the House in January 2025. The Senate version of...

Amap of the U.S. showing land under federal control paints large swaths of the West. In August, Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that it’s unconstitutional for the feds to retain unappropriated land in a state indefinitely. Since the lawsuit was filed, a dozen other states, including Idaho, Alaska and Wyoming, have filed briefs asking the court to hear the case. Additionally, a coalition of counties in Arizona and New Mexico, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Utah Legislature and the Wyoming Legislature have also filed briefs in support of the lawsuit. “The federal burden in the West...

U.S. officials would allow increased logging on federal lands across the Pacific Northwest in the name of fighting wildfires and boosting rural economies under proposed changes to a sweeping forest management plan that's been in place for three decades. The U.S. Forest Service proposal, released Friday, would overhaul the Northwest Forest Plan that governs about 38,000 square miles (99,000 square kilometers) in Oregon, Washington and California. The plan was adopted in 1994 under President Bill Clinton amid pressure to curb destructive logging practices that resulted in widespread clearcuts and destroyed habitat used by spotted owls. Timber harvests dropped dramatically in...

Discover the Untold Stories of Pennsylvania's Logging Legacy | Dive into the Rich History of Logging in the Keystone State! From Steam Power to the Williamsport Boom, explore how this fascinating industry shaped Pennsylvania's past. Join us on a journey through the heart of lumber history and learn about the innovations, challenges, and triumphs that defined it. Don't miss this deep dive into Pennsylvania's Logging History! VISIT OUR WEBSITE! https://www.lumbercapital.com/

When the first settlers came to America their primary objectives were clearing the land to grow food and building shelter. It wasn’t until Columbus second voyage in 1493 that agriculture supplies were included. Those items included seeds, plants and domestic livestock. Animals consisted of a few light Spanish horses for cavalry service, sheep, heifers, calves and other small animals. Oxen were not employed until the heifer reached maturity. The settlers could not afford the luxury of an animal for milk and a different animal for meat. Consequently, the same animal was used for milk and meat. These sturdy bovines also...

According to the Rachel Carson Institute, Enviva alone — which currently owns and operates seven plants in the southeastern United States — is responsible for clearcutting 50 acres of southern forestland every day, much of it a mix of hardwoods critical for wildlife habitat and absorbing the carbon dioxide rapidly warming the planet.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The federal government said Thursday that it’s beginning the process of repealing a Trump-era rule that permitted road-building and logging harvesting in an enormous southeast Alaska rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that a proposed measure to repeal last year’s rule will be published for public comment next week, beginning a 60-day process. The previous rule exempted more than 9 million acres (36,421 square kilometers) in the Tongass National Forest from a 2001 rule that banned road construction, reconstruction and timber harvesting in roadless areas, with some...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of forest in Oregon, Washington and California to potential logging. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed a decision made five days before Trump left office to drastically shrink so-called critical habitat for the spotted owl. The small, reclusive bird has been in decline for decades as old-growth forests disappear. The Associated Press obtained details on Tuesday’s...

Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, testified in federal court in 1993 that she sent a threatening letter to the Forest Service warning that a local forest had been sabotaged with tree spikes. Stone-Manning told a local news outlet in 1993 that she could have faced conspiracy charges had she not struck an immunity deal with a federal prosecutor in return for her testimony. Court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that Stone-Manning testified that her friend and former roommate John Blount, who was found guilty and sentenced to 17 months...

The backdrop for President Trump’s visit to Duluth, Minnesota, last week featured two powerful American symbols. Air Force One, a symbol of American leadership and strength, and three loaded logging trucks, personifying one of the nation’s most important agricultural products and the many hard-working small-business owners that make up the logging industry. The forest products and logging sector was deemed critical during the COVID pandemic as the nation continued to rely on sustainably harvested timber to produce everything from home building materials to toilet paper. Logging has a rich American history going back to building the original settlements, ship building,...

At just 19 feet long, it's used to deploy underwater fences. D'awww. ========================================================================== A little baby boat is making waves on Reddit. It may be the smallest ship in the U.S. Navy. The "Boomin Beaver" is a security tug that can tow small ships and deploy underwater fences. One of these boats fetched $100,000 in an auction, which sure seems like a lot for a boat this small. An adorable little tugboat as long as a Ford F-150 is making the rounds on social media, prompting many to call it the “smallest ship in the U.S. Navy.” At just 19...

I was brought up a military brat. My father did 22 years in the United States Air Force. In 1954 when he joined, they promised if he made a career of it, he and his wife, my mother, would be taken care of for life. He got out in 1976 after extending his service a couple of extra years so I would not have to switch high schools in Florida. We moved out west after my father retired and I finished high school. In 1978, I got a job in the wood products industry at a particleboard factory and began...

Daines and Feinstein have been working on forest management reform proposals for several years, and the Paradise tragedy may be what pushes the legislation through a divided Congress, Daines said. He called the bipartisan effort a breakthrough. “We have a strong friendship and we’ve worked together on other issues,” Daines said of his relationship with Feinstein. “Both of our states are dealing with serious wildfire issues, and particularly public safety issues.” The fire in Paradise, the nation’s deadliest in nearly a century, and 18 more in California in 2017 were caused by Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines, investigators...

Loggers expect to come across some things when they cut down trees. Bird’s nests and things stuck in the branches seem like a given – a mummified dog in the center of a tree, however, does not. But that’s exactly what a team of loggers with the Georgia Kraft Corp. found while cutting down a tree in the 1980s.

A national logging organization is offering support to President Trump following catastrophic wildfires in California and a political debate over the causes of the destructive blazes. “President Trump blamed poor forest management for wildfires in California and throughout the West, and there is truth to statements he has made,” said Daniel Dructor, executive vice president of the American Loggers Council, a coalition of state and regional associations that represents independent contract loggers. “It’s time to rise above political posturing and recognize that active forest management — including logging, thinning, grazing and controlled burning — are tools that can and must...

FRENCH MEADOWS RESERVOIR, Calif.—Obscured amid the chaos of California’s latest wildfire outbreak is a striking sign of change that may help curtail future devastating infernos. After decades of butting heads, some environmentalists and logging supporters have largely come to agreement that forests need to be logged to be saved. The current fires are hitting populated areas along the edges of forests and brush lands, including the 142,000-acre Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County. That now ranks as the most deadly and destructive in state history, killing at least 71 people, leaving hundreds missing and destroying more than 9,800 homes....

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is seizing on California’s wildfires to promote a policy long-supported by Republicans — that fires could be stopped if forests were logged. The former Montana congressman is poised to push the benefits of what’s known as forest management at an event with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in California on Monday next to the state's largest forest fire in history. Yet it's not just the blaze that makes the trip important for Zinke and Perdue. Galvanized by President Trump's recent tweets on the issue and a looming farm bill vote in the House that carries a number...

The Trump administration will propose dumping the Clinton and Obama administrations’ “Roadless Rule” to open logging in the Los Padres National Forest to prevent big wildfires. The U.S. Forest Service is moving to open up the Los Padres Forest north of Los Angeles to commercial logging for the first time in 21 years to reduce the risk of massive size wildfires, according to reports by KTLA.