Stop Protected Forests From Being Sacrificed for Industry Profits

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Sponsor: The Rainforest Site

Millions of acres of public forestland are being handed over to logging companies, threatening endangered species, clean water, and the climate—unless we fight back now.

Stop Protected Forests From Being Sacrificed for Industry Profits

More than 100 million acres of national forests—nearly 60% of public forestlands—have been opened to logging under new federal orders1. These forests include critical wildlife habitats, drinking water sources, and old-growth carbon sinks. Logging is moving forward without meaningful environmental review, public input, or safeguards for endangered species2.

This isn’t forest management. It’s a mass deregulation of protections that existed for decades.

What’s Being Cut Isn’t Just Trees

Under orders from the White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service is being directed to increase timber sales by 25%3. In California, all 18 national forests—spanning over 20 million acres—are affected4. In the Northwest, iconic public lands in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are now under pressure to produce more timber5.

These forests support hundreds of species that depend on mature tree cover and clean waterways. The endangered Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat rely on old trees for roosting6. Mussels and salamanders like the eastern hellbender depend on undisturbed rivers to survive6.

Wildfire Risk Is No Excuse

Federal officials claim this logging surge is needed to reduce wildfire risk. But fire ecologists say cutting old-growth trees makes fires worse, not better. Large trees are more fire-resistant and store moisture. Logging often leaves behind dry brush and flammable debris6.

Experts agree: the best wildfire solutions are prescribed burns, thinning small trees, and creating defensible space around homes—not gutting national forests5.

The Climate Cost Is Devastating

Mature forests play a key role in slowing climate change. A 2022 study showed that protecting large, old-growth trees could offset up to 10% of U.S. fossil fuel emissions5. Once logged, it takes decades for those carbon stores to recover—if they ever do.

Logging these forests undermines our ability to meet climate goals and protect clean air and water for future generations.

We Still Have a Choice

This isn’t just about trees. It’s about the right to clean water, a stable climate, and biodiversity. It’s about ensuring that endangered species don’t disappear because of political decisions made behind closed doors.

If we don’t act now, protections that took generations to build will vanish in a matter of months. These lands belong to the American public—not the timber industry. 

Sign the petition and tell federal leaders to immediately ban logging in previously protected forests.

More on this issue:

  1. Elizabeth Weise, USA Today (8 Apr 2025), "National forests face the hatchet as Trump administration boosts logging."
  2. Abigail Hakas, Spotlight PA (10 Apr 2025), "Critics fear Trump admin’s logging order will harm mature trees, endangered species."
  3. The White House (1 Mar 2025), "Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production."
  4. Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times (12 Apr 2025), "Trump’s order to expand U.S. timber production includes all of California’s national forests."
  5. Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times (12 Apr 2025), "Trump proposed cutting the Northwest’s national forests."
  6. Abigail Hakas, Spotlight PA (10 Apr 2025), "Critics fear Trump admin’s logging order will harm mature trees, endangered species."

The Petition

To the President of the United States, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and Chair of the President’s Council on Climate Preparedness,

We, the undersigned, call on you to take immediate action to ban logging activities in forests that have long been protected under federal law, including old-growth and critical habitat areas across the United States.

The recent executive actions to dramatically increase logging on more than 100 million acres of national forestland threaten the health of ecosystems vital to endangered species, clean water supplies, and climate resilience. Forests like those in California, the Pacific Northwest, and Pennsylvania are not just resources—they are living systems that provide essential habitat, filter our drinking water, stabilize soils, and store carbon at massive scales.

Logging in previously protected areas risks driving endangered species like the Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat closer to extinction. It jeopardizes aquatic ecosystems by releasing sediment into streams that support threatened species like the eastern hellbender salamander. And it undermines our nation’s ability to mitigate climate change by removing the mature trees that are most effective at capturing and storing carbon.

We urge you to halt all logging operations that would proceed under “emergency” exemptions, fast-tracked permitting, or weakened environmental review processes in historically protected forest lands. These rollbacks violate the spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the public trust.

Preserving these forests is not a matter of politics—it is a matter of public health, environmental justice, and intergenerational responsibility.

Protecting our forests today ensures cleaner air, safer water, richer biodiversity, and a livable climate for generations to come. The future of our planet depends on the choices you make now.

Sincerely,