A new piece of bipartisan legislation would erode safeguards meant to protect trees
By Will Solomon
A new bill moving through Congress promises a major overhaul in the way federal officials manage public lands in the United States. Lawmakers have framed the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA), passed by the House of Representatives, as a necessary response to the spate of disastrous wildfires that have burned in the West over the last several years. The bipartisan bill would remove impediments to logging, allowing the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management vastly more latitude to remove what they say is the fuel that drives wildfires.
But critics contend that the bill’s purported solutions are a mirage. Instead of addressing the crisis, this bill would allow federal agencies to push through large management projects indiscriminately, while limiting avenues for public oversight. Though there is broad support for reducing wildfire destruction, some lawmakers and conservationists say FOFA’s effects on public lands would be disastrous. Rather than reducing wildfire and protecting forests, they say the bill is a giveaway to the timber industry that will worsen wildfires and other threats American forests are facing.
Will Solomon is a freelance writer who covers climate and environment in the Northeast US. He writes for the Times Union Hudson Valley, Civil Eats, The American Prospect, Counterpunch, and others. He is on Bluesky and elsewhere at @wsolol.
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