Clear-Cutting the Future

Trump’s Plan to Gut National Parks for Profit

Nothing screams "making America great again" quite like paving the way for corporations to gut national parks and public lands in the name of profit. Thanks to a new executive order, the logging industry gets a free-for-all pass, and our forests—those complex, irreplaceable ecosystems—get the axe. Literally.

Donald Trump’s latest stroke of genius? Bypassing environmental regulations to boost domestic timber production. Never mind that he threw a fit about the U.S. importing timber from Canada—because heaven forbid a neighbouring ally supplies resources. They had all the timber they needed, but no, the solution wasn’t trade, it is gutting national parks instead. Because apparently, the only value a tree has is as a pile of lumber. Regulations—the very backbone of protecting our natural world—are now seen as pesky obstacles standing in the way of Big Timber and their bottom line.

A Forest Is Not Just Trees

Here’s a crazy idea: forests are more than just wood factories. They are entire ecosystems—thriving, interconnected worlds of flora, fauna, fungi, and delicate balances that have taken thousands (if not millions) of years to form. Destroying them for short-term economic gain is beyond reckless; it’s ecological arson.

But let’s be honest, that’s the Human way, isn’t it? Slap a dollar sign on something and strip it for parts. Who cares about the species that rely on these forests? Who cares about Indigenous communities that hold these lands sacred? Who cares about the fact that deforestation increases the risk of droughts, wildfires, and the very climate disasters we keep pretending aren’t happening?

What this could mean for National Parks and Public Lands - Under this executive order, national parks, wildlife refuges, and other protected areas will become fair game for commercial logging. Jobs in park conservation? Gone. Biodiversity? Collateral damage. The forests you hike in, camp in, and admire? Reduced to barren wastelands because some executives wanted to pad their wallets. It’s not just about the trees. It’s about the rivers and lakes that forests protect. It’s about the carbon they store, the oxygen they produce, and the wildlife they shelter. When you clear-cut a forest, you don’t just remove trees—you erase entire lifelines.

Regulations Are the Bare Minimum, and Even That’s Too Much?

Regulations exist because industries don’t self-regulate. Period. Left unchecked, corporations would strip the planet bare, poison the water we drink, and suffocate the air we breathe—all while whining about their profit margins. The idea that environmental protections are "burdensome" is laughable. What’s actually burdensome? Watching politicians dismantle the last safeguards we have against total ecological collapse.

Climate change isn’t just about emissions—it’s about destruction. It’s about the wholesale slaughter of forests that once absorbed carbon and gave us oxygen. It’s about waterways choked with industrial waste and plastic, poisoning the ecosystems that sustain life. It’s about air thick with chemicals, seeping into our lungs with every breath. It’s about microplastics embedded in the soil, in the oceans, and even in our bodies. We are flooding our world with toxins, stripping it of its natural defences, and then acting surprised when the consequences come crashing down.

And yet, instead of urgent action, we get more deregulation, more excuses, and more environmental plundering disguised as "economic growth." This isn’t just recklessness—it’s systemic, calculated greed.

If gutting national parks and shredding environmental protections weren’t enough, the Trump administration is now trying to criminalize climate work itself. The FBI is moving to label groups like Habitat for Humanity as criminals for receiving EPA climate grants under the Biden administration.

Yes, you read that right. The U.S. government called for environmental work, organizations applied, were reviewed, and accepted—and now Trump wants them jailed. According to reports, the FBI has pressured Citibank to treat recipients of EPA climate grants as potentially liable for fraud. This isn’t just about cutting funding; this is about actively targeting those who dedicate their lives to protecting the environment.

This is deeply concerning. It signals a new level of repression...not just against activists, but against organizations working within the system to enact change. The elimination of these groups will leave no checks, no resistance, no accountability, paving the way for even more unchecked ecological destruction. And let’s not forget that this comes on top Trumps EPA launching the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.

The message is clear: environmental protection is an enemy to be eradicated, not a cause to be supported. And if that doesn’t scare you, it should.

The Earth Is Not a Commodity

One of humanity’s biggest, most fundamental flaws is how we view the world around us—as a commodity, a set of resources to extract, sell, and exploit. This mindset is disgusting. The earth is not a product for us to consume until there’s nothing left. It is a living, breathing network of ecosystems that we are a part of, not rulers over. The sooner we shed this selfish, capitalist-driven delusion that nature only exists for our benefit, the sooner we might start protecting it and living in harmony with it.

We need to stop looking at forests as timber. Stop looking at rivers as potential hydroelectric power. Stop looking at land as something to be bulldozed and developed. We are not above nature. We are of nature. And if we don’t wake up to that fact, we will be the architects of our own destruction.

Where Do We Go from Here?

The fight for environmental protection has never been more urgent. As a Canadian, I am urging Americans to fight harder—because your forests, your rivers, your lands don’t just belong to you; they are part of our shared world. What happens to your wilderness affects us all. If we don’t push back against this, it won’t stop at logging. Our public lands will continue to be auctioned off to the highest bidder for mining, drilling, and whatever other horrors the extractive industries dream up. We cannot afford to sit back and watch it happen.

Call your representatives. Support conservation organizations. Show up to protests. Make noise. Because if we don’t, soon enough, there won’t be any forests left to protect.

And when the last tree is cut, when the last river is poisoned, and when the last national park is turned into a corporate wasteland, they’ll call it progress.