🌲 Protecting America's Forests: Uncovering the Truth Behind Trump's New Logging Regulations and Its Impact on the Coronado National Forest in Southern AZ

The recent federal directive eliminating environmental protections for 58% of U.S. national forests threatens Arizona's biodiverse Coronado National Forest.

Apr 20, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

The Trump government just changed the rules to let logging companies cut down trees in special forests 🌳 that were protected before. One of these forests is called Coronado National Forest in Arizona, near where Mexico 🇲🇽 and the United States 🇺🇸 meet. These forests are important homes for animals 🦌 and plants 🌿 that can't live anywhere else. They also provide clean water 💧 and air 🌬️ for people who live nearby.

Many Indigenous peoples consider these mountains ⛰️ sacred and have taken care of them for thousands of years. The government says cutting trees will prevent forest fires 🔥, but scientists and Indigenous people know there are better ways to prevent fires that don't involve destroying forests. People are working together 🤝 to try to protect these forests from being cut down.

🗝️ Takeaways

🌵 Trump administration has eliminated environmental protections for 58% of U.S. national forests, including Arizona's Coronado National Forest, under an "emergency" designation
🪓 The directive allows faster permitting, reduced environmental reviews, and elimination of the public objection process for logging projects
🗣️ Forest Service initially denied Coronado would be affected, then walked back their statement when confronted with evidence
📊 The Forest Service's own 2018 plan found commercial logging in most of Coronado "not cost efficient" due to inaccessible terrain
🔥 Despite claims about reducing wildfire risk, the directive ignores climate change and Indigenous ecological knowledge that actually mitigates fires
✊ Communities across the borderlands are organizing resistance through legal challenges, monitoring, and grassroots activism

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La Sierra Se Vende: Trump Admin Opens Coronado National Forest to Corporate Logging

The Latest Attack on Our Sacred Lands

Qué desgracia. The mountains that have stood as silent witnesses to our people's history are now on the auction block.

Last month, with a stroke of a pen and without consulting the Indigenous nations whose ancestral territories are affected, the Trump administration issued what they're calling an "emergency order" that eliminates environmental protections for over half of America's national forests, including our beloved Coronado National Forest right here in Southern Arizona.1

This isn't just another policy change—it's the latest chapter in a 500-year colonial project to extract wealth from lands that Indigenous peoples have stewarded since time immemorial.

The federal directive, signed by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, claims this drastic action is necessary to combat wildfire risk and support the domestic timber industry. According to the order, approximately 58% of U.S. national forests will now face increased logging with significantly reduced environmental oversight.

The Coronado National Forest, spanning nearly 1.8 million acres across our borderlands, is among the targeted areas.

The Double-Speak of Destruction

What makes this situation even more infuriating is the Forest Service's contradictory messaging. When initially questioned about the Coronado's inclusion in this order, the national press office claimed our forest wouldn't be affected. But when confronted with their own maps showing parts of the Coronado clearly marked for logging, they were forced to walk back their denial.2

"We've been seeing this kind of contradictory, confusing things happening with the administration," said Louise Misztal, director of the Tucson-based Sky Island Alliance.

This pattern of deception has become all too familiar in an administration that views environmental protections as obstacles to profit rather than safeguards for our collective future.

The Truth Behind the "Emergency"

Let's be clear about what this really is: an attempt to bypass environmental laws that have protected our public lands for decades. The administration's order allows the Forest Service to:

Streamline permitting processes for logging operations
Bypass thorough environmental reviews usually required by law
Increase timber harvests by a targeted 25% over the next 4-5 years3
Eliminate the objection process that allows tribes, environmental groups, and community members to challenge logging proposals before they're finalized4

This "emergency" designation is nothing more than a thinly veiled gift to timber corporations. The climate crisis that's actually making wildfires worse? Conveniently ignored in Secretary Rollins' directive.

Típico. Blame the trees instead of the fossil fuel industry that's cooking our planet.

Why the Coronado Matters

For those unfamiliar with the Coronado National Forest, it's not just trees and scenery. These mountains are the ancestral homelands of the Tohono O'odham, Apache, and other Indigenous peoples. They contain some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America, serving as crucial wildlife corridors between Mexico and the United States. The forest's "sky islands"—isolated mountain ranges surrounded by desert—harbor species found nowhere else on Earth.

The Coronado provides border communities with clean water, fresh air, recreation, and a spiritual connection to the land. Many of us who grew up in these borderlands learned to see the world through relationships with these mountains. When our abuelas taught us the names of plants that could heal and harm, they weren't just sharing botanical knowledge—they were passing down a way of being in relationship with the land that colonial borders and extractive capitalism have tried and failed to destroy.

What's Actually at Stake?

Ironically, the Forest Service's own 2018 management plan for the Coronado found that while 45,657 acres are "tentatively suitable" for timber production, all but 55 of those acres were deemed "not cost efficient in meeting timber production objectives." The remaining 55 acres were recommended for wilderness designation, which would prohibit commercial logging.5

According to the Forest Service's assessment: "Lands (in the Coronado) having potential commercial-grade timber are located at very high elevations of mountain ranges on four ranger districts. These areas are isolated and difficult to access, making it extremely unlikely for a single processing facility to develop a feasible business model that could incorporate most timbered lands."6

So, even according to the government's own analysis, large-scale commercial logging in Coronado makes little economic sense. But when has sense ever stood in the way of extraction? If there's profit to be made—even marginal profit—corporations will find a way, especially when environmental regulations are conveniently eliminated.

The Real Wildfire Solution

The administration justifies this policy by claiming it will reduce wildfire risk. But ecological science tells a different story. While some forest thinning can be beneficial when done with ecological knowledge and cultural respect, industrial logging often removes the largest, most fire-resistant trees while leaving behind highly flammable slash piles and debris.

What actually reduces wildfire risk? Indigenous cultural burning practices (TEK) that have shaped these landscapes for millennia. Controlled, low-intensity burns that clear understory vegetation while preserving mature trees and soil health. Community-based forest stewardship that centers relationship rather than extraction.

But those approaches don't generate profit for timber corporations, so they're ignored in favor of clear-cuts and commercial logging that devastate forest ecosystems.

A Pattern of Environmental Injustice

This attack on our forests doesn't happen in isolation. It's part of a broader assault on environmental protections that disproportionately impacts Indigenous communities and communities of color. The same administration has:

Stripped protections from Bears Ears National Monument, sacred to multiple tribal nations
Fast-tracked oil and gas leasing with reduced environmental reviews7
Weakened the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which gives communities a voice in decisions affecting their environment
Undermined the Endangered Species Act's ability to protect threatened plants and animals

These policies create a perfect storm of environmental injustice, where the most vulnerable communities bear the heaviest burdens of ecological destruction while corporate profits are prioritized over people and planet.

The Resistance Continues

Pero no nos rendimos. We do not surrender.

Throughout the borderlands, communities are organizing to protect the forests that protect us. Indigenous nations are asserting their sovereignty and treaty rights. Environmental groups are preparing legal challenges. Community scientists are documenting forest conditions.

And every day, people are standing up to say ¡Ya basta! Enough.

This struggle for our forests is part of a centuries-long resistance to colonization and extraction. The same spirit that has sustained our communities through generations of struggle lives on in today's movement to protect the land and water we all depend on.

What You Can Do

Stay Informed - Follow organizations like Sky Island Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Three Sonorans (yes, that's us!) for updates on this policy and opportunities to take action.
Contact Your Representatives - Tell them you oppose this rollback of forest protections and demand they take action to restore environmental safeguards.
Support Indigenous Land Defense - Follow the lead of Indigenous nations whose ancestral territories include the Coronado National Forest. Respect their leadership and support their sovereignty.
Document and Monitor - If you visit the Coronado, document conditions and report any new logging activities to environmental watchdog groups.
Build Community Resilience - Get involved with local efforts to protect and restore native ecosystems, practice traditional ecological knowledge, and build sustainable relationships with the land.
Support Three Sonorans - Our independent journalism brings you stories from the borderlands that mainstream media ignores. Your support allows us to continue this crucial work. Consider becoming a monthly supporter at [link to donation page].

In the face of policies designed to extract and exploit, our most radical act is to remember our relationships—to the land, to each other, and to the generations yet to come. The mountains have survived centuries of colonization. With our collective action, they will continue to stand tall for generations to come.

La lucha sigue. The struggle continues.

What do you think? Leave a comment below with your answers to these questions:

How are environmental issues in your community connected to broader struggles for social justice?
What traditional ecological knowledge from your culture or region could help address today's environmental challenges?