GILLETTE, Wyo. — Nearly all of Wyoming’s national forests are included in the United States Department of Agriculture’s new “Emergency Situation Determination” to boost timber production and, according to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, reduce risk of wildfires.
In a memo sent out late last week, Rollins first cited President Trump’s executive order to boost U.S. timber production by 25% as a determinate factor in this incredibly large expansion of federal logging.
“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,” Rollins said in the memorandum. “It is vital that we reverse these policies and increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security.”
Simultaneously, recent disastrous wildfires throughout the American west have increased concern over healthy forest habitats and how to manage them to reduce risk of fires. While Trump spent his final month as President-elect rallying around putting out significant fires in California, Wyoming suffered a brutal wildfire season of its own.
The most prolific — though not remotely the state’s only significant — fire in 2024 was the Elk Fire in the Bighorn National Forest near Dayton. That fire burned for over a month and torched nearly 100,000 acres.
The Bighorn National Forest, as well as multiple others across the state, will be included in the secretary’s action.
“I am proud to follow the bold leadership of President Trump by empowering forest managers to reduce constraints and minimize the risks of fire, insects, and disease so that we can strengthen American timber industry and further enrich our forests with the resources they need to thrive,” Rollins said in a USDA release.
Above is the map included within the memorandum. Green portions of the map note the boundaries of all Forest Service and USDA-administered territory. The blue sections are the new areas just opened up to logging.
Though not an exhaustive list, impacted areas include the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, the Shoshone National Forest, Black Hills National Forest and the Bighorn National Forest.
The department also noted that ensuing action will dismantle some National Environmental Policy Act processes. In total, the ESD will impact 112,646,000 acres of NFS area determined to be at risk of either fire, harmful insects or both. This accounts for 59% of all Forest Service lands.
Rollins’s memo did note that the department will hire consultants to ensure that federal logging actions comply with policies like the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and others.
See the attached memorandum below to see what the implementation of this ESD will look like.
