Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production

The order directs the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to issue updated guidance on timber production tools — including Good Neighbor Authority, stewardship contracting, and tribal forest agreements — within 30 days, and to submit any needed legislative proposals to OMB. Within 60 days, Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service and Commerce's fisheries office must complete a strategy to speed Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultations for forest management projects. Within 90 days, Interior and Agriculture must jointly submit a four-year timber sale target plan to the President. Within 120 days, agencies must complete the Whitebark Pine Rangewide Programmatic Consultation. Interior must consider new categorical exclusions for timber thinning and salvage within 280 days.

Section 3 separately orders all relevant agencies to eliminate undue permitting delays and to suspend, revise, or rescind regulations, guidance, or policies that impose undue burdens on timber production. Section 4 directs the Endangered Species Committee to promptly process exemption applications and requires federal members to report to the President identifying ESA-related obstacles to timber production infrastructure. The order's operative changes to existing regulations depend on subsequent agency rulemaking under applicable law.

Federal land managers and timber contractors operating on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands, domestic timber and lumber producers, construction and energy sectors that rely on wood products, and communities near federal forests with wildfire risk exposure.

Timber producers and federal contractors may face fewer permitting delays on public lands, potentially increasing lumber supply and moderating construction costs. Communities near federal forests could see faster-approved wildfire-risk reduction projects. Actual regulatory changes depend on what agencies do in response to the order.

The order runs on a staggered timeline: guidance and legislative proposals first (30 days), ESA consultation strategy and delegation review next (60 days), a four-year timber sale target plan to the President at 90 days, completion of the Whitebark Pine consultation at 120 days, and new categorical exclusions considered through 280 days. The Endangered Species Committee is tasked with proactive exemption review. Interior and Commerce must keep consultation officers available for emergency ESA consultations. Deliverables flow to the President through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and to OMB for legislative proposals. Most regulatory changes require agencies to act consistently with applicable law, meaning further rulemaking is needed before binding changes take effect.