By Rebecca Turner, American Forests, Senior Director of Programs & Policy
As of today, Donald Trump is officially the 45th president of the United States. And, while we still don’t know exactly how his presidency will impact our forests, the signals he has sent so far raise a great deal of concern.
The new president’s public statements on climate change, fossil fuels, public land use and suggested budget cuts to environmental programs indicate a drastic change in federal environmental policy and practice. Many of these would, undoubtedly, have serious negative consequences for our nation’s forests. While some of his cabinet picks have contradicted his climate change stance, we will have to wait and see which of Trump’s statements will come to fruition.
Regardless of the administration’s actions, our mission and core activities will remain the same. We’ll continue to inspire and advance the conservation of forests. We’ll continue to protect and restore threatened forest ecosystems, promote and expand urban forests and increase understanding of the importance of forests.
Specifically, we will continue to fight:
- to keep forests as forests — protecting them from overdevelopment and fragmentation
- against opening our forests to more drilling for oil and natural gas
- to keep our public lands public — not sold off to private interests
- to ensure green infrastructure is a key part of overall infrastructure spending
- to ensure forests remain part of a climate change solution and protected from the threats exacerbated by climate change
American Forests has remained nonpartisan since our inception, and as a 501(c)3 charity, we do not engage in political activity. However, throughout our 140-plus year history, beginning with the Ulysses S. Grant Administration, we have advocated for policies that keep our forests healthy and thriving, our urban forests and greenspaces increasing, wildlife habitat safe and expanding and for all the benefits our forests provide us. We have worked together with both Republican and Democratic administrations whenever possible and stood up and fought when our forests were at stake. We will continue to do this work and remain vigilant in our efforts to protect and restore our forests.