A House Natural Resources subcommittee will take testimony this week on legislation to put into law some of the Trump administration’s proposed forest policy moves.
The Subcommittee on Federal Lands bills will review bills including two that would codify the administration’s efforts to speed forest-thinning and timber harvesting on bigger areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A third would repeal restrictions on logging and other development in designated roadless areas of national forests.
The roadless-area bill, by Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), H.R. 7695, addresses regulations from 2001 that the administration is moving to rescind. Like the administration, Hageman has blamed the restrictions for blocking projects to reduce wildfire risk, although environmental groups say wildfire ignitions are more common in areas with roads.
The roadless-area rule has been an on-again, off-again limit since initial adoption — rescinded during the George W. Bush administration, then reinstated after a legal challenge, then rescinded in Alaska by the first Trump administration and reinstated again during the Biden administration.
