As Trump burns down the Forest Service, Cascadia should take control of our federal land
Lost in recent news of violence by ICE goons, an apocalyptic war in Iran, and a refusal to make public the Epstein files, the Trump regime last week quietly killed the US Forest Service. As Jim Pattiz wrote in a scathing article at Hatch magazine,
Late Tuesday afternoon, with the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice, the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. Not a budget cut. Not a policy shift. Not a “reorganization.” An execution.
The burning down of the world's largest public lands management agency was swift and cold-blooded. The regime announced that the agency's headquarters will be moved from Washington, DC to Salt Lake City – home base to the right-wing Sagebrush rebellion and some of the most rabidly pro-logging industry advocates in the US.
Most concerning for Cascadia is the closure of regional offices, including shuttering of the Pacific Northwest regional office in Portland. In addition, Trump's neutering of the agency includes closure of 57 of 77 of the Forest Service's scientific research centers – which have been the backbone of efforts to prevent wildfires, increase ecosystem health, monitor and protect endangered species, address climate change, and thoughtfully manage recreation and wilderness areas.
Moving those offices amounts to firing thousands of staff, since many lifetime Forest Service employees are rooted in their region and won't move to Salt Lake City or Fort Collins, Colorado. They will likely be replaced with loyalists looking to increase logging under their new boss, Tom Schulz, a former Idaho timber industry executive. Utah is also home to senator Mike Lee, who proposed selling off millions of acres of Cascadia's public lands.
Andrew Engelson
What does this mean for Cascadia? Washington and Oregon are home to 24 million acres of national forest land: 15% of all land in Washington and 25% of all land in Oregon. That includes millions of acres of wilderness and roadless areas – which are now under attack from Trump's clear-cutting minions. The Trump administration recently announced it wants to ramp up clear-cutting on federal lands to a staggering 4 billion board feet by 2028.
In a recent Associated Press article, Josh Hicks of the Wilderness Society summed up the concerns of many people here in the Pacific Northwest:
“At a time when wildfires are getting worse, and access to public lands is already under strain, the last thing we need is an unnecessary reorganization that creates chaos and confusion for the land managers, researchers and wildland firefighters who help keep our forests healthy now and for future generations."
In the past I haven't supported efforts to turn over control of these federal public lands to the states – those past efforts were generally led by Sagebrush rebellion extremists intent on handing public lands over to mining, fossil fuel, and timber industry corporations.
But now, as the feds decapitate the US public lands system beyond the point of recovery, I've had a change of heart: it's time for Washington and Oregon to encourage Congress to turn over our region's federal lands to state control. Yes, I understand that this won't turn out well for places like Idaho or Utah, but let's admit: the feds are already gunning to rip those lands apart anyway.
Letting Cascadia oversee our bioregion's public lands would ensure that we can return to evidence-based forest management. We could restrict clear-cutting, continue to protect old growth, encourage recovery of threatened species, and engage in practices that reduce wildfire risk.
Furthermore, this process should involve meaningful consultation with and active consent from Washington and Oregon's tribal nations – who have known how to effectively manage Cascadia's forests since time immemorial.
Turning over federal lands in the Pacific Northwest to local control would further increase the autonomy and independence of Cascadia, and allow our Oregon and Washington to move forward on protecting our bioregion's environment and tacklinging climate change.
Andrew Engelson
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