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President Donald Trump is promising to unleash the US timber industry by allowing companies to raze swaths of federally protected national forests.
The executive order — which calls for the ramping up of the domestic timber production to avoid reliance on "foreign producers" — was followed three days later by sweeping 25% tariffs on Canadian products, including lumber.
The United States has an "abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs," the executive order says.
However, it's more complex than simply swapping out Canadian imports for homegrown timber, said industry experts, who warned tariffs could end up increasing lumber and building costs — and even push up housing prices for consumers.
Meanwhile, environmental groups say clearcutting national forests will pollute the air and water, endanger wildlife and exacerbate climate change. "Trump's order will unleash the chainsaws and bulldozers on our beautiful, irreplaceable federal forests," said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
"This is a particularly horrific move by Trump to loot our public lands by handing the keys to the kingdom over to big business," Spivak said.
Tap the link in @cnnclimate bio for more.
📸 : Amanda Loman/AP/File, Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis News/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images
