CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is headquartered in Charlottesville, is warning of the danger a directive from D.C. poses to national forests.
Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to significantly increase timber production, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins issued a secretarial memo to expand logging in National Forests. The memo also removes some environmental protections from the logging process.
According to Rollins, the directive, in large part, aims to mitigate the risk of wildfires.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, however, says this will do more harm than good.
“It’s going to be pretty big,” said Sam Evans, Leader of the National Forests and Park Program with the Center. “These orders will play out in individual projects, and what it means is that the projects won’t get the same environmental review that they would have under preexisting law. So, that means that we’re just going to assume that any logging that happens in these forests is going to beneficial.”
Evans says logging has always been one of the responsibilities of the U.S. Forest Service, but that it seems to be the only responsibility that the executive branch cares about now.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.
Copyright 2025 WVIR. All rights reserved.