When one of Vermont’s oldest lumber mills, run by the A. Johnson Company in Bristol, shut down its saws in 2023 after 117 years in business, it seemed like another sign of a waning timber industry. Now, a sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump has stirred fresh debate in the Green Mountain State over whether a surge in federal logging might revitalize local forest economies or imperil treasured woodlands. …Though it only makes up about 6-7% of Vermont’s total land area, it’s the state’s largest federal land holding and a key source of wood for local sawmills. …“There are lots of reasons why the Forest Service hasn’t been doing more harvesting but amongst them are the weaponization of the Endangered Species Act,” said Jack Bell, one of the cofounders of Long View Forest, a logging company in Hartland.

Additional coverage in the VT Digger by Greta Solsaa: Vermonters react to the Trump administration’s guidance for increased logging on national forests