President Donald Trump’s newest tactic for “Making America Great Again” is to plow through our country’s protected national parks.
In an executive order signed over the weekend, the commander in chief claimed that the nation’s logging output was a matter of “national security” and that we needed to start chopping down the protected trees.
“The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers,” the Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production order read.
But as Trump sees dollar signs and business opportunities, other parts of the country see major environmental concerns.
“The habitat will be altered, modified, and lost through this executive order. Species will be compromised, put further at risk, and likely lost," retired Agency Chief of Biological Resources for the National Park Service Elaine F. Leslie told Daily Kos. "Years and decades and decades of efforts to secure and restore at-risk species will be set back many more decades."
Sun shines through Douglas fir trees in the Willamette National Forest, Oregon.
Not only does Trump know this, he seems intent on invoking the “God Squad,” the nickname for the Endangered Species Committee, to help bypass any environmental challenges he might come across.
In one of two executive orders, the president invoked the Endangered Species Committee. The rarely used panel consists of highly ranked individuals who meet to decide whether or not to override the Endangered Species Act.
In other words, these designated humans are given the power to decide if a project—such as cutting down national forests—is worth risking the extinction of an entire animal species. The “God Squad” has only been successfully used twice.
As for why Trump wants to plow down America’s natural resources, one theory might lie in his own brewing trade war.
The U.S. imports its timber from multiple countries, the largest supplier being Canada at nearly half. Another major supplier of timber is China. Trump’s executive orders come at a time when the president is in the midst of an all-out trade war with both Canada and China. Goods, including the wooden type, are being hit hardest as Americans watch prices rise and the stock market nosedive. It’s unclear how much Trump’s executive orders are motivated by rising trade costs.
Part of Trump’s executive order tells the director of commerce to investigate whether other countries are dumping lumber into American markets. The inquiry could result in additional tariffs on our northern neighbor.
Daily Kos reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Regardless of how or why Trump wants what he wants, the president seems hellbent on tearing apart the U.S.’s national parks. In February, he issued a hiring freeze on federal workers—including park rangers—and fired about 5% of the already sparse park employees.
“Today I lost my dream job as a permanent park ranger in the NPS. I’m still in shock, and completely devastated,” former park ranger Alex Wild wrote on Instagram. To his followers, Wild said that he was the “only EMT” at his park and the “only first responder for any emergency.”
“This is flat-out reckless. … My heart is broken for all of the other people who lost their jobs and their housing. My heart is broken for the parks and landscapes that will be damaged. And my heart is broken for my country.”
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