Agriculture

August 30, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter

Hannah Story Brown

Newsletter AgricultureClimateCongressional OversightExecutive Branch

The Forest Service: In Service of Logging Companies Since 1905

The roughly 35,800 employees of the federal Forest Service, housed within the Department of Agriculture, are responsible for managing 193,000,000 acres of national forests. The mission of the Forest Service is to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.” Yet time and time again, the Forest Service has betrayed this mission in order to service the profit-driven ends of the timber industry, prioritizing commercial timber extraction over recreation and conservation, and ignoring the essential role intact forests play in mitigating our ongoing biodiversity and climate crises.