Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies

The order directs the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to complete a public inventory of old-growth and mature forests on federal lands within one year, then coordinate conservation activities, analyze threats such as wildfire and climate change, and develop new management policies for those forests through a public comment process. It also requires both agencies to develop a federal reforestation goal with agency-specific targets to be met by 2030, a climate-informed seed-collection and nursery-capacity plan, and recommendations for economic development in sustainable forest products and outdoor recreation in timber communities.

On the international front, it instructs the Secretary of State — in consultation with a broad group of agencies — to submit within one year a report on options to combat deforestation through supply-chain restrictions, trade agreements, and foreign assistance. Separately, it directs the Council on Environmental Quality, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and National Climate Advisor to report to the National Climate Task Force on opportunities to deploy nature-based solutions, and directs OMB to issue guidance on valuing ecosystem services in regulatory decisions. The order does not itself change any land-use regulation; all concrete changes depend on future agency action.

Federal land managers at the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, Tribal Nations with treaty rights and subsistence practices on federal lands, timber communities and sustainable forest product businesses, outdoor recreation operators near national forests, and international trading partners whose commodities may be reviewed for deforestation links.

Timber companies, recreationists, and conservation groups will all be subject to new federal management policies once the inventory is complete and agencies develop rules. Local economies in timber communities could see shifts in what forest activities are encouraged or restricted on federal land.

The domestic forest track has a built-in sequencing: the inventory must finish first, and the threat analysis, conservation coordination, and new management policies all flow from it. The reforestation and seed-capacity plans run on a parallel one-year track. International deforestation is addressed through State Department reports rather than direct regulatory action. No enforcement mechanism is specified for agencies that miss deadlines; implementation is explicitly conditioned on applicable law and appropriations availability. A general severability clause preserves existing agency authority unchanged.