The Office of the Secretary of the Interior issued an order this week to accelerate timber cuts and other forest management activities. The order sets out a timeline for the Interior Department to “identify and remove” environmental regulatory hurdles for forest management projects and initiate new measures to reduce wildfire risks.
The new initiative is intended to increase active management of federal forests to the greatest extent possible under Interior’s existing authority. The order is a direct response to an Executive Order issued by President Trump on December 21, 2018, directing federal agencies to promote forest resiliency to protect at-risk communities. The order was signed on January 2, 2019, but was only just now posted to the Department’s website, possibly due to the government shutdown.