Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 6/17/20

The USDA chief last week sent a memo to the Forest Service directing the agency to speed up environmental reviews, potentially allowing national forests and grasslands to be used for more logging, grazing, resource extraction and other purposes. The plan isn’t sitting well with environmental advocates, writes POLITICO’s Ximena Bustillo this a.m. 

“This is a roadmap to national forest destruction, and it’s painful to read,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program. Spivak called it a “dystopian vision of expanding mining, fracking, logging and grazing in national forests” that would “kill wildlife and increase carbon pollution.”

The memo said it’s aimed at “increasing the productivity of national forests and grasslands,” citing opportunities like using the public lands for broadband infrastructure, energy and minerals extraction or recreational activities such as hunting and fishing. It’s scant on specifics, but environmentalists are worried about how broadly it could be applied.