Trump Is Clear-Cutting a Forest You Own and Selling It for Scrap

The Trump administration is moving to log and sell off public lands across the country, and Oregon is ground zero. In February, the Forest Service signed off on industrial logging across roughly 86,000 acres around Hells Canyon, including never-logged old-growth forest where wolves breed and salmon run. The administration is also working to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule, the largest forest-protection policy in American history, which would open tens of millions of acres of national forest to road-building and logging. Last summer, an attempt to sell millions of acres of public land through a budget bill was struck down by the Senate parliamentarian, but the broader push continues, and public timber is already being sold to companies including Sierra Pacific Industries, the country’s largest private landowner.Meanwhile, the National Park Service faces a maintenance backlog estimated at $24 billion, even as the administration has redirected roughly $76 million in national-park entrance fees toward beautification projects in Washington, D.C., ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. That includes a no-bid contract to repair and repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has ballooned to about $13.1 million, roughly seven times the initially stated cost. At Crater Lake National Park, 18 of 45 permanent positions sit vacant and the superintendent resigned after five months.Credit to More Than Just Parks for tracking this throughout. Follow them for updates and for the public comment link when the next window opens.Sources:https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/national-park-fees-dc-projects.html Get full access to The Rogue Voice aka Linsay Rousseau at linsayrousseau.substack.com/subscribe