Former Forest Service Chief Calls Out Trump’s Logging “Emergency”

There are parts of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin’s Northwoods that are under an “emergency” designation. This forest covers 1.5 million acres across more than 10 counties. But former U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck is calling out Trump’s logging “emergency” as a policy shortcut. He describes it as the administration’s way of dismantling proper forest management in favor of fast-tracked commercial logging. Dombeck, who grew-up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, along with Joe Hovel, a long-time advocate who has helped conserve thousands of acres in the northern part of the state, join Pat Kreitlow, host of Mornings with Pat Kreitlow, to discuss how commercial logging could quickly happen — not just in this Wisconsin — but across more than 100 million acres of national forests nationwide. 

If this nation, of all others, cannot demonstrate how to live in harmony with the natural world that sustains us, what hope is there for other nations?

Former U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck: as written for the Forest Service Natural Resources Long-term Agenda

“It’s about two things,” Dombeck explains. “Concern for people and concern for the land.”

He points first to the mass firing of 3,400 probationary Forest Service employees with almost no notice. Dombeck describes many as experienced seasonal workers, trained EMTs, and vital first responders in their rural communities. 

“These are young families with childcare expenses, house payments, health insurance needs,” he says. “They were discarded without a second thought.”

Dombeck and Hovel warn that beyond the human cost, the consequences will be visible to every American who depends on national forests for clean water, recreation, and sustainable timber harvests. Hovel emphasizes an often-overlooked economic value of national forests.

“More than 900 cities depend on forest watersheds for drinking water,” Hovel explains. “This is worth more than $3.8 billion annually which outpaces the revenue from timber sales.”

“This isn’t about stopping sustainable logging,” Dombeck adds. “It’s about preserving the multiple uses these lands support, everything from recreation to water protection, hunting, fishing, and more. The Trump approach focuses almost solely on short-term timber profits, risking a century’s worth of recovery and stewardship.”

The impact on local economies would be devastating. Campgrounds could close, emergency services could diminish, and rural tourism — which brings in $13 billion annually — could suffer as forests become degraded.

Hovel also points to broader fears of creeping privatization, warning that efforts to sell off public lands to private interests could accelerate. 

“Our national forests are a common treasure that belong equally to all Americans,” Hovel says. “If we fail to protect them now, we doom ourselves.”

Both men stress real forest management requires a balance of interests, not a corporate free-for-all that sacrifices the long-term health of America’s lands for a short-term gain.

“This is not a radical position,” Dombeck says. “It’s conservative in the truest sense — conserving resources for the future.”