On March 1, 2025, President Trump issued two Executive Orders of interest. The first, entitled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production”, can be found at this link:
The second, entitled “Addressing The Threat To National Security from Imports of Timber, Lumber” can be found here:
The first EO, entitled, “Immediate Expansion of U.S. Timber Production,” declares that the production of timber, lumber, paper, and bioenergy and other wood products is critical to our Nation’s well-being. It directs Federal agencies to take specific actions to increase timber supplies and reduce regulatory barriers on federal lands over a defined timeline.
The second, entitled, “Addressing the Threat to National Security From Imports of Timber, Lumber,” sets as U.S. policy that the wood products industry “is a critical manufacturing industry essential to the national security, economic strength, and industrial resilience of the United States.” The EO highlights how the U.S. lumber industry has the practical production capacity to supply 95 percent of the United States’ 2024 softwood lumber consumption, yet the U.S. has been a net importer of lumber since 2016. (This latter statement is a linchpin of Associated California Loggers grassroots lobbying for years — we have now achieved success in getting the message through!)
The EO directs to the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with other federal departments including the Department of Defense, to investigate “the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber, and their derivative products” under the Trade Expansion Act. The investigation, including policy recommendations for strengthening the U.S. timber and lumber supply chain through strategic investments and permitting reforms, is due to the President in nine months.
Immediate Expansion of U.S. Timber Production. This EO focuses directly on Federal agencies and Federal lands, requiring specific actions from the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce over the next 280 days.
First, in the next 30 days, the Secretary of the Interior (through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management) and the Secretary of Agriculture (through the Chief of the Forest Service) must issue new or updated guidance regarding tools to facilitate increased timber production and sound forest management, reduce time to deliver timber, and decrease timber supply uncertainty.
The Departments must also submit suggestions for legislative reforms to the Office of Management and Budget that expand authorities to improve timber production and forest management.
Second, in the next 60 days, the Secretaries of the Interior (through the Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife) and Commerce (Assistant Administrator of Fisheries) must develop a strategy on Forest Service and BLM forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). ESA consultation is the one of the most significant obstacles to achieving higher timber outputs on federal lands. The success of this strategy is critical to the achieving the goal of the EO.
The EO also directs the agencies to use the ESA regulations on consultations in emergencies to facilitate the Nation’s timber production. The Secretary of the Interior, as Chairman of the Endangered Species Committee, shall expedite all submissions to such committee, to include identification of any legal deficiencies, in order to ensure the timely consideration of exemption applications and, where possible, to resolve such applications before the deadlines set by the ESA.
Third, in the next 90 days, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture must submit a plan to the President that sets a target for the annual amount of timber per year to be offered for sale over the next 4 years from Federal lands managed by the BLM and the Forest Service.
Fourth, within six months, BLM and the Forest Service will look to adopt categorical exclusions (CEs) administratively established by other federal agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and reduce the time and costs related to administrative approvals for timber production, forest management, and wildfire risk reduction treatments.
Fifth, and within 280 days, the Secretary of the Interior (BLM) will establish a new categorical exclusion for timber thinning and re-establish a categorical exclusion for timber salvage activities.
Finally, the EO directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to “eliminate, to the maximum extent permissible by law, all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production. Additionally, all relevant agencies shall take all necessary and appropriate steps consistent with applicable law to suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.”
ACTION SUGGESTED FOR ACL MEMBERS AND FRIENDS
We recommend that you click on the links to President Trump’s above Executive Orders and print the documents out for your records so as to see the provisions and projects that will affect you and bring you into the national effort to increase timber production and significantly(totally?) reduce the import of lumber into the US when abundant timber is available here without significantly reducing timberlands beyond over-dense and high fire hazard lands.
Associated California Loggers will maintain its strong involvement in national matters in Washington DC through the American Loggers Council and its President, Californian and former ACL state President Mike Albrecht. Also, under the direction of Associated California Loggers President Jeff Holland, ACL will be sending a delegation of officers to DC for its annual grassroots lobbying later this spring.