The US Forest Service is under-resourced and ill-equipped to deliver on Trump’s agenda to “free up” forests for domestic lumber production and reduce dependence on Canadian and European wood.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The US Forest Service is under-resourced and ill-equipped to deliver on Trump’s agenda to “free up” forests for domestic lumber production and reduce dependence on Canadian and European wood. That is according to a new report produced by Global Wood Trends, revealing that decades of under-investment – dating back to the Clinton administration – and DOGE cuts means that the department, headed by Tom Schultz, needs a massive injection of on-the-ground training and recruitment to make up the shortfall.
“Even with executive orders promoting federal timber harvesting, legal battles from environmental groups are likely to delay or block proposed logging operations,” the report said. “The timber industry faces a severe workforce shortage, including a lack of loggers, truck drivers, road builders, and mill workers.”
It comes as E&E reports that DOGE cuts, which have seen funding freezes and mass firings across the Departments of Agriculture and Bureau of Land Management, are curbing efforts to boost logging, according to current and former officials: “The administration is looking to increase the pace and scale with logging, and we need it: Our forests are overstocked,” said one Forest Service official granted anonymity to discuss the problems.
“But the workforce that gets most of this work done is no longer with us. We don’t have the personnel to do this,” said the person, who works on timber harvests at a national forest in California that has lost more than 20 people and cannot hire for seasonal positions.
Then, there is the closure of sawmills in key western states, including Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and California, making transporting logs to mills increasingly expensive: “Investment concerns (are) also hindering expansion,” according to Lesprom, a market-based resource for forest products. “That’s because investors are reluctant to expand sawmill capacity given uncertainties around federal timber policies, legal risks, and unpredictable supply levels.”
Courtesy: www.woodcentral.com
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