Here's why Trump's promised logging boom faces headwinds

By Kirk Siegler

Published October 13, 2025 at 5:01 AM EDT

President Trump is trying to reverse the Clinton era rule that puts 59 million acres of National Forest lands off limits to timber harvest and other development. America's timber industry may not see the boom many conservatives expect.

National

Kirk Siegler

Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues, water and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona where indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration's goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity.

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Here's why Trump's promised logging boom faces headwinds

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
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