Agriculture Secretary’s memo opens up 80 percent of Los Padres Forest to expedited logging ...Middle East

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – A secretarial memo issued Friday by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins created an Emergency Situation Determination for 112,646,000 acres of national forest lands, opening the federally protected areas up to commercial logging.

According to a map about the determination's changes from the U.S. Forest Service published on March 28, 2025, most of the determination includes federally protected forests in the Western portions of the country and includes at least 80 percent of the Los Padres National Forest.

"National Forests are in crisis due to uncharacteristically severe wildfires, insect and disease outbreaks, invasive species, and other stressors whose impacts have been compounded by too little active management," stated Friday's memo. "These threats-combined with overgrown forests, a growing number of homes in the wildland-urban interface, and more than a century of rigorous fire suppression- have all contributed to what is now a full-blown wildfire and forest health crisis."

According to the memo, the Agriculture Secretary issued the determination under the authority of section 40807 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which allows for the Secretary to "make a determination that an emergency situation exists with respect to National Forest System land...based on an examination of the relevant information."

"Actions taken pursuant to this ESD [Emergency Situation Designation] will support improving the durability, resilience, and resistance to fire, insects, and disease within forests and grasslands across the National Forest System," stated the Agriculture Secretary's memo.

On Wednesday, Executive Director Jeff Kuyper of the Los Padres ForestWatch issued a press release explaining that under the new designation, the Forest Service can approve logging and vegetation removal projects on an expedited basis while bypassing environmental protection laws and public input.

"This is a thinly veiled attempt to ramp up logging on our national forests, bypass environmental laws, and line the pockets of the timber industry," argued Kuyper. "This move—coupled with mass firings, budget cuts, and environmental rollbacks—will wreak havoc on the Los Padres and other national forests across the country."

Friday's memo did carve out some of the standard administrative review process stating, "Any required environmental assessment or environmental impact statement for an authorized emergency action requires analysis of only the proposed action and the no action alternative and is not subject to the project-level pre-decisional administrative review ("objections") or any processes set forth in 36 CFR Part 218."

Kuyper noted that that section of the memo:

In an April 3, 2025, letter from Chris French, the Acting Associate Chief for National Forest Systems with the U.S. Forest Service to Regional Foresters and Deputy Chiefs, all Regional Foresters were directed to, "develop 5-year strategies, tiered to the national strategy, to increase their timber volume offered, leading to an agencywide increase of 25% over the next 4-5 years."

"Despite claims that logging will reduce wildfire risk, decades of scientific research and recent wildfire disasters consistently show that commercial logging does not prevent the most destructive fires—those driven by extreme winds and climate conditions. The kinds of wildfires that threaten communities are not fueled by dense forests, but by extreme winds that can hurl embers miles ahead of a fire front, igniting homes and structures regardless of nearby vegetation," countered Kuyper. "Firefighting experts agree that protecting communities starts at the home—not in the backcountry. Investments in retrofitting homes, creating defensible space and maintaining "Zone Zero" (the area within five feet of a structure), and improving emergency response systems are far more effective than remote logging projects that do little to alter fire behavior when it matters the most—during extreme wind events. By using “emergency” declarations to fast-track commercial logging under the false promise of fire protection, the Trump Administration is putting special interests ahead of science and leaving local communities more vulnerable at a critical time when climate change is worsening fire risk across the country."

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