President Donald Trump’s executive order freeing up America’s forests for logging in order to decrease U.S. reliance on Canadian lumber could result in the felling of millions of trees.
Newsweek contacted The White House for comment outside of standard working hours on Friday.
Why It Matters
The White House says the initiative is necessary to lower construction costs, create jobs, and reduce wildfire risks.
The move comes amid souring relations between the U.S. and its close neighbor, with the Trump administration introducing tariffs against its longtime ally. The president has also repeatedly suggested Canada could become the 51st U.S. state.
What To Know
The executive order, signed on March 1, directs federal agencies to streamline timber production by easing restrictions and expediting logging permits.
“The Order calls for new or updated agency guidance to facilitate increased timber production, sound forest management, reduced delivery times, and decreased timber supply uncertainty,” it read.
Canadian wood imports satisfy around 25 percent of U.S. lumber demand. According to LBM Journal, the U.S. imported over 12.7 billion board feet of lumber from Canada in 2022, while according to Statista, the U.S. had approximately 765.5 million acres of timberland in 2022.
According to The House Designers, a site dedicated to home construction and design, a mature pine tree of 80 feet with a diameter of 2 feet would yield 754 board feet of lumber.
This means approximately 17 million trees would have to be felled to match the quantity of lumber the U.S. imports from its neighbor.
What People Are Saying
Speaking from The White House this week, President Donald Trump said: “We don’t need Canada’s lumber. So what I’m doing is I’ll be signing an executive order freeing up our forests so that we’re allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money and then re-harvest trees.”
He added: “We don’t need trees from Canada, we don’t need cars from Canada, we don’t need energy from Canada, anything from Canada.”
He also said: “Why should we be buying lumber from other countries, paying tariffs, paying big prices, extraordinary prices, and we have lumber. We have the best lumber.”
The American Forest Resource Council, an industry group, in a statement: “These executive orders state the obvious but provide the clarity and leadership past administrations have failed to say out loud and prioritize: America’s wood products should come from America”
Chad Hanson, wildfire scientist at the John Muir Project, speaking to The Guardian: “This Trump executive order is the most blatant attempt in American history by a president to hand over federal public lands to the logging industry.”
Hanson added: “What’s worse, the executive order is built on a lie, as Trump falsely claims that more logging will curb wildfires and protect communities, while the overwhelming weight of evidence shows exactly the opposite.”
What Happens Next
While those in the domestic logging industry are optimistic about the move, environmental groups have raised concerns over potential environmental impacts.
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