| Contact: Steve Pedery, Oregon Wild |
In response to a secretarial memo focused on expanded logging, Oregon Wild Conservation Director Steve Pedery issued the following statement, calling out the administration’s attempt to exploit public fear and override environmental safeguards for the benefit of the logging industry:
“This memo isn’t about protecting forests. It is about logging and looting 60% of America’s National Forest Lands, 112,646,000 acres, by declaring a fake emergency to justify weakening protections for our clean water, wildlife, and wildlands. When the Secretary of Agriculture says the primary goal is to ‘protect timber resources,’ it pulls the mask off this manufactured emergency.
This order would gut the ability of the American public to ensure that their clean drinking water and local forests are protected from poor logging practices These safeguards ensure that science, transparency, and community voices are part of the decision-making process. Gutting them only serves corporate logging interests.
The map shared by the Secretary is both vague and misleading. It includes areas that are off-limits to commercial logging and temperate rainforest areas where claims of high fire risk or other justifications are dubious at best. The chaotic and haphazard nature of the Secretarial Order’s release raises serious concerns about how these maps were produced, and who is really making decisions about Trump forest policy.
If this administration were serious about wildfire, it would invest in protecting homes and communities through programs to help homeowners with home hardening, defensible space, and emergency planning— not industrial logging in remote forests that destroys wildlife habitat and makes fire risks worse. The science is clear, and so is the motive behind this memo. Anyone who cares about clean water, wildlife, and public lands should join us in opposing this reckless scheme to loot our National Forests.”
Oregon Wild’s mission is to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and water as an enduring legacy. Oregon Wild is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year.
