Forest Service using the threat of wildfire to increase timber targets

https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2025/02/forest-service-is-using-threat-of-wildfires-to-meet-timber-targets-documents-show.html

Internal documents show the Forest Service discussing — both internally and with the timber industry — how its various legal and policy “tools” and emergency authorities related to its wildfire prevention programs could be and have been harnessed to increase sales of board feet of timber.
The documents discuss how “barriers” to achieving these “timber targets,” including civil litigation from environmental organizations, might be overcome through “streamlining” environmental oversight by using legal exemptions to the National Environmental Policy Act.
For the Forest Service and the timber industry, “streamlining” means removing some NEPA red tape. It’s a necessary step, they argue, on the way to creating a win-win scenario that will help prevent wildfires, increase board feet of timber, and, in the process, grow rural timber jobs.