It didn’t get much notice, but President Trump has turbocharged logging on public lands in ways that are likely to increase dangerous wildfire. Inside the “Big Beautiful Bill” that became law this summer, a provision directs the U. S. Forest Service to annually increase the timber it sells until the amount almost doubles to 5 million board-feet by 2032.

Why did few people notice this directive to dramatically increase logging from our public lands? One answer is that it got lost as an engaged public fought selling off millions of acres of public land.

Final score: We got to keep the land but not the trees.

Most people support careful logging as part of the smart management of public forests. For instance, a now-irrelevant bill called Fix Our Forests Act had been steadily advancing throu

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