President Donald Trump took action last weekend to increase domestic logging by circumventing environmental protections and to staunch the flow of imported lumber products primarily from Canada. A pair of executive orders — one addressing timber and wood product imports, the other addressing logging on federal lands — drew praise from the logging industry, condemnation from environmental and wildlife groups, and concern from the construction industry over higher prices. The order rolls back the degree to which the agencies have to comply with the Endangered Species Act or consider negative impacts of logging. …[making] it easier for environmentally damaging clear-cut logging to be approved. …The executive order on timber production … can exempt projects from complying with the landmark law. …allowing projects to proceed even if they will harm a protected species or result in extinction. Historically, the committee has been used to aid recovery from natural disasters, not to expedite resource extraction.