Heinrich Slams Trump Admin’s Massive Logging Proposal as Latest Attack on America’s Public Lands

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the following statement on the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) proposal to authorize an unprecedented emergency salvage logging project spanning more than five million acres across six national forests in Idaho and Montana.

"Time and again, this administration has put the interests of billionaires and powerful industries ahead of America's public lands and the people who own them.

"Active wildfire management requires targeted, science-based hazardous fuels treatments-not a blank check for sweeping clearcutting, new road construction, and fewer safeguards for the places that Americans hunt, fish, hike, camp, and enjoy with their families.

"If the Forest Service is going to invoke extraordinary emergency authorities, it owes the public transparency and accountability. Instead, it released an eight-page notice with no maps, no meaningful project details, and no explanation for why this massive proposal qualifies as an emergency, while giving Americans just seven days to weigh in.

"This is not part of a broader fire mitigation strategy. If it were, it wouldn't sweep in areas where nearly 90 percent of the landscape falls outside high-risk firesheds, and it wouldn't require a 25 percent increase in timber volume that incentivizes cutting larger, more fire-resilient trees instead of the smaller-diameter trees that pose the greatest fire hazard. Clearcutting and building roads won't help prevent catastrophic wildfires, but they will benefit the timber industry at the expense of the lands that belong to the American people.

"As Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I will continue holding the Forest Service accountable and demanding the transparency and public oversight Americans deserve as this process moves forward."

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