What’s Happening to the U.S. Forest Service?

With environmental attorney Susan Jane Brown on timber, fire policy, and public land management

In this bonus episode of The Wild Idea podcast, we explore the growing crisis inside the U.S. Forest Service—an agency responsible for managing 193 million acres of federal public land.

Our guest, environmental attorney Susan Jane Brown, breaks down how recent federal policy shifts are:

• Increasing logging mandates under “fire mitigation”

• Firing thousands of Forest Service employees

• Undermining science-based forest management

• Threatening public access and trust in federal land agencies

We also discuss the broader impacts on the timber industry, rural communities, and the future of public lands—and what resistance, recovery, or reform could look like.

🎧 Listen and subscribe on thewildidea.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
🔗 Learn more about SJ’s work at Silvix Resources.

Books, resources, and other notes from today’s episode:

• U.S. Forest Service
• U.S. National Park Service
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Bureau of Land Management
• Department of the Interior
• Department of Agriculture
• Fix Our Forests Act
• Secretary’s Memorandum 1078-006: INCREASING TIMBER PRODUCTION AND DESIGNATING AN EMERGENCY
  SITUATION ON NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM LANDS
• The Wild Idea Episode 3: Nate Schweber: Public Lands History That Rhymes
• Pyramid Mountain Mill

Susan Jane M. Brown is Principal of Silvix Resources. Her primary focus of litigation is federal public lands forest management, but her practice includes cases involving the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and other land management statutes including the Oregon and California Lands Act. Susan Jane’s policy portfolio includes federal land management planning, wildfire risk reduction and mitigation, appropriations, wildlife conservation, and Indigenous co-management of federal lands, among other issues.

She continues her involvement in collaborative working groups across the Pacific Northwest, including as a founder of the Blue Mountains Forest Partners on the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon.

Find Susan on the Silvix Resources website and on LinkedIn.

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