Trump’s Logging Efforts Struggle to Sell Industry on Public Land

By Bobby McGill
Bloomberg Law
September 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

The Interior Department says it’s on track to meet a federal goal to increase logging on federal lands, even as timber industry analysts warn low prices, scarce sawmills, and litigation will likely threaten progress. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has increased timber sales by 4.6% so far in fiscal 2025 over all of fiscal 2024. Interior spokeswoman Alyse Sharpe said. …Trump’s logging goals face fierce headwinds, however, as depressed lumber prices, a worker shortage in the timber industry, and an overriding sense of uncertainty about the future of logging are chilling timber industry interest in actually cutting down the trees sold in federal sales, said Mindy Crandall, at Oregon State University. “The Forest Service can put the timber up for sale, but someone has to want it,” Crandall said. But Trump’s logging policies are likely to have limited reach across the US in part because federal lands make up only a small part of the timber supply, and tariffs are unlikely to crush the demand for Canadian lumber.

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