Freedom of Information Act Records Reveal U.S. Forest Service Considering Nationwide Chainsaw Use in Wilderness

CounterPunch News Service

 May 6, 2026

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Old-growth forest in the Columbia Wilderness Area, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

In a letter to the Forest Service Chief, conservation organizations, trail groups, and retired agency wilderness specialists express strong opposition to requests from commercial outfitters and guides for chainsaw use in designated Wilderness

MISSOULA, MONTANA—Nearly 100 conservation organizations, trail groups, and respected U.S. Forest Service specialists with decades of wilderness administration expertise have written a letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz expressing strong opposition to requests from commercial outfitters and guides for chainsaw use in designated Wilderness.

The letter comes on the heels of a Wilderness Watch Freedom of Information Act request revealing that the agency is considering nationwide chainsaw use in Wilderness, effectively letting commercial outfitters run chainsaws through Wilderness and the Wilderness Act.

“On behalf of our hundreds of thousands of members and supporters across the country, we write with growing concern over the Forest Service’s apparent consideration of commercial outfitters and guides’ request to use chainsaws for trail and camp clearing across much of the National Wilderness Preservation System….This is a precedent-setting consideration that could significantly impact the National Wilderness Preservation System, legally and practically, by systemically degrading wilderness character and outsourcing the Forest Service’s statutory duties of wilderness administration to third parties, including those with significant commercial conflicts of interest,” states the letter.

Wilderness Watch recently intercepted a letter from the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association to Forest Service Chief Schultz requesting permission to use chainsaws in Wilderness in Idaho for trail maintenance. In response, Wilderness Watch reached out to the Salmon-Challis National Forest, but was effectively stonewalled. Meanwhile, Wilderness Watch members continued to reach out with tips that led the organization to believe that this effort is not limited to Idaho but has national implications.

Documents Wilderness Watch obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate the Forest Service wasn’t being forthright and the Idaho proposal is part of a nationwide effort to let commercial outfitters run chainsaws throughout protected Wilderness areas. According to internal emails, the agency is bringing in an outside contractor to “help address the chainsaws in wilderness issue at the national scale.”

“Chainsaws are prohibited in Wilderness because they represent, and effectuate, a level of domination and control over the landscape that has decimated so many other places. We hope the Forest Service Chief appreciates the seriousness of the authorization he is considering,” said Dana Johnson, Wilderness Watch’s policy director.

“Allowing commercial outfitters and guides to clear wilderness trails with chainsaws, particularly when the authorization is considered at a broad scale, is a foundational affront to wilderness protection on multiple levels,” said Wilderness Watch’s Dana Johnson. “It shows the Forest Service has abandoned its statutory duty to protect these special places from the tools of industrialization, and equally troubling, the Forest Service is putting the chainsaws in the hands of commercial interests. Motorized equipment and commercial enterprise are both prohibited in Wilderness for good reason.”

“Since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964 prohibiting the use of chainsaws in federally designated Wilderness, the Forest Service has developed and implemented an enduring national cross-cut saw program that has trained, certified, and supported thousands of highly skilled and dedicated crosscut sawyers—including employees, volunteers, and outfitters. This cadre of dedicated personnel has demonstrated that preservation of wilderness character, trail maintenance, and other wilderness work can all be efficiently and safely accomplished using non-motorized traditional tools. There is no reason for that to change now,” said Suzanne Cable, who retired in 2024 after a 30-year career with the Forest Service, finishing her career as the forest-wide program manager for Recreation, Trails, and Wilderness on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.

“Designated Wilderness was established to ensure we do not modify all lands and leave none in their natural condition, where only natural sounds abound and where outstanding opportunities for solitude may be cherished,” said Kevin Hood, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE). “A chainsaw buzzing in a wilderness valley is as jarring as a chainsaw blazing in a church, library, museum or other place of reverence. It does not belong in an area defined as untrammeled, natural, undeveloped and with outstanding opportunities for solitude.”

“Here in the eastern mesophytic hardwood forest region, we have very few designated Wilderness areas compared to out west. We do get tornadoes and other events that drop trees on occasion. That is part of the ‘wilderness experience.’ If chainsaws are used to remove those trees, it is, by definition, no longer Wilderness. If chainsaws are allowed, how long will it be before ORVs are allowed in to facilitate easier access? Those of us who prefer Wilderness do not expect manicured trails. As always, the cheapest form of forest management is to just leave it alone,” said David Nickell, Chair, Heartwood Forest Council.

Additional quotes from the letter:

“Congress prohibited mechanized and motorized uses in Wilderness…Chainsaws, electric or gasoline powered, embody the attitude that human convenience, impatience, and demand come first, and that no place is beyond the reach of our appetite to dominate and control. Chainsaw use fundamentally undermines the goals of the Wilderness Act.”

“Part of the wilderness experience is meeting and experiencing Wilderness on its own terms—an experience that is increasingly rare in our tech-dominated, overly curated world. Visitors may not be able to access everywhere they desire as easily as they desire due to blowdown on trails, but that, too, is part of a wilderness experience.”

“To the extent the Forest Service wants to clear trails for access but is understaffed to do so, the lack of non-motorized trail crews is a problem of the Forest Service’s own making. The Forest Service has been using trail crews with crosscut saws in Wilderness for as long as the National Wilderness Preservation System has existed, and even before that. However, over the last decade or two, the agency has been systematically abandoning and defunding its wilderness program and increasingly outsourcing wilderness administration to volunteers and third parties…..The solution to this problem is to recommit to Forest Service wilderness programs and wilderness-compatible stewardship rather than resorting to chainsaws and other prohibited activities that degrade wilderness character.”

“If the Forest Service is seriously considering authorizing chainsaws for trail clearing, either by agency crews or private entities—a precedent setting decision with significant implications for our Wilderness System—the decision should not be made behind closed doors. The public must be properly notified and given the opportunity to comment.”

A copy of the letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz is available here.

US Forest Service Withdraws Cooke City Deforestation Project on the Border of Yellowstone National Park After Being Sued by Conservation Groups

Mike Garrity

 May 6, 2026

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Morning in the Beartooth-Absaroka Range, Montana. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Alliance for the Wild Rockies,  Dr. Jesse Logan, Native Ecosystems Council, and the Gallatin Wildlife Association secured another significant win for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem after the Forest Service withdrew a deforestation project that would have affected one of the healthiest whitebark pine forests in the nation and thousands of acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas on the northeast border of Yellowstone National Park.

Plaintiffs sued to stop this project in March, alleging, in part, that the project ignored legally-mandated protections for whitebark pine, grizzly bears, and lynx under both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Cooke City Fuels Project would encompass 19,221 acres in Park County, Montana, within the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains, bordered by Yellowstone National Park on the west, the Wyoming state line on the south, east of Colter Pass along the Highway 212 corridor, and north to the boundary of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area. The project would have included 3,128 acres of commercial and non-commercial logging and burning, including 1,225 acres of deforestation in the Beartooth, North Absaroka, Reef, and Republic Mountain Roadless Areas.

The Forest Service claimed the project would protect the town of Cooke City from wildfire. However, the plan called for logging well beyond the wildland urban interface  — a key reason why the vast majority of Cooke City residents who commented opposed it. 

Authorized logging on 2,014 acres would have logged trees up to 30-feet from individual whitebark pines in an unscientific attempt to protect whitebark pine  from the white pine blister rust. The rust, native to Asia, has spread to 38 states since being introduced to North America in the 20th century and caused substantial damage. However, all peer-reviewed scientific studies show that this type of logging, known as daylight thinning, does not help whitebark pines survive their primary threats of climate change, blister rust, and mountain pine beetle. 

Waste of Money 

The Forest Service disclosed the clearcutting project would have resulted in a $2.8 million net loss to federal taxpayers. As the national debt is at a record $38.8 trillion, there is simply no reason the Forest Service should have authorized spending $2.8 million for this illegal logging project.

The money the Forest Service would have wasted on this project could be directed to planting rust-resistant whitebark pine trees, which research shows prevents whitebark pine from going extinct, and to harden homes and businesses from wildfire.

We sued the Forest Service last year and won to stop the South Plateau logging, burning, and road-building project on the western border of Yellowstone National Park. One of the issues on which we prevailed was the agency’s attempt to shrink the definition of secure habitat for grizzlies from 2,500 acres to 10 acres. The Court’s ruling in that case stated that there was an “absence of any scientific evidence” to show that a 10-acre patch provides adequate habitat for grizzly bears. 

Despite the Court’s ruling the Custer Gallatin National Forest again applied this 10-acre definition in evaluating the effects of this Cooke City deforestation project. Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Dr. Logan, Gallatin Wildlife Association, and Native Ecosystems Council sent a letter to the Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife Service indicating they intended to pursue an Endangered Species Act claim on this issue as part of their lawsuit

Please consider helping the Alliance for the Wild Rockies protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and helping Counterpunch inform the American people about what our government is doing.

Mike Garrity is the executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

War and Social Medicine

Editorial Board, Social Medicine Journal

 May 6, 2026

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Photo by Sunguk Kim

As social medicine practitioners, we take a side. We have seen our broad civil society and academic efforts to convince U.S. and other countries’ politicians to stop or not to participate in genocide fall on deaf ears. We recognize that the Zionist entity called Israel will not stop committing war crimes and its genocide in West Asia unless it is forced to.

We take the side of unconditional peace, human rights, and equity – comprehensively embodied in the principles and practice of Social Medicine. Therefore, we value the efforts to stop the attacks and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon. We also urge the protection of health and humanitarian brigades and the international press in a conflict that systematically kills those who fight disinformation or simply seek to save the lives of innocent civilians.

Actions by Israel leading to deaths, injuries, and destruction of facilities needed for survival do not happen only in their region. Israel has participated in or supported militarily other genocides and repressive governments around the world. These actions have led to devastating effects on health and survival for many countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Israel has described Palestine as a “laboratory” to test armaments, surveillance systems, and military tactics and strategies so that the Israeli government and Israeli corporations can sell them to dictators and repressive governments around the world.

This journal has already before taken a stance against the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel, which on 30 March 2026 flagrantly spotlighted its apartheid occupation with a new law making the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the West Bank when found guilty of deadly attacks unilaterally deemed to be acts of terrorism. The U.S. and the European Union have funded, provided the arms for, and given political cover to this genocide. Now the U.S. has joined with Israel in a tag team of sorts to assault Iran and Lebanon. In the opening of the war, the U.S. double-tapped a primary school for girls in Minab with two Tomahawk cruise missiles. It murdered primary school girls and their teachers with the first missile – then, family members, neighbors, and rescuers with the second, 40 minutes later – for a total of 170-some. This demonstrates the willingness of the U.S. to directly engage in the violation of international law, committing war crimes that have been a matter of course for Israel. In accordance with this law, the leaders of the U.S. and Israel ought to be held criminally accountable for the current aggression and wars.

As Social Medicine practitioners, we recognize the social determination of ill-health and premature deaths. We not only examine the proximate causes, but we also identify the determining large-scale social forces (structural determinants). In the current situation, we can identify a variety of them, including the use of Zionism as an organizing principle to justify a settler colonialist apartheid that occupies the land of Palestine. Zionism’s adherents include Christian fundamentalists. Furthermore, many U.S. military personnel are reporting that their officers are also telling them that they are fulfilling a divine mission as explicitly endorsed by some Congress members and officials of the Department of War. Similarly, Israeli authorities allude to “Greater Israel” as a religious justification for a perpetual war of aggression.

As Social Medicine practitioners, it is evident to us that the U.S. empire is in decline. History teaches us that declining empires overreach. The U.S. seeks to perpetuate this system through violence. By initiating the war of aggression against Iran, the U.S. and its tag team partner are contributing to the further decline of the U.S. empire. This is happening in a widespread, extreme, and dangerous manner which can lead to a devastating (and possibly the last) Third World War.

As Social Medicine practitioners, we recognize that the main costs of war are borne not just by combatants, but increasingly – and even primarily – by ordinary people. When critical infrastructure – such as airports, shipping, ground transportation, fuel, fertilizer, food supplies, water (desalination plants), sanitation, electricity, hospitals, clinics – are blown up by bombs, ordinary people die because they cannot obtain the things that make their lives possible. Meanwhile, war is promoted by the military industrial complex, which benefits greatly, further escalating already extreme global inequities.

To the east of the Persian Gulf, the countries of Asia, dependent on the flow of petroleum through the Strait of Hormuz, are in dire straits. Their people and their migrant workers are already starting to feel the pain.

In the Americas, the U.S. is violating all norms of international law. It has attacked civilian boats in international waters. The U.S. further violated Venezuela’s sovereignty, sabotaged its water and power plants, and launched a military attack, wounding many and killing more than 75 Venezuelans and Cubans. It illegally kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The war against Cuba continues. The US war of attrition, initiated in 1962, has taken a crueler turn by prohibiting the entry of oil, food, and medicine – betting that the growing failure to provide basic services, coupled with efforts to bring about famine – will create the conditions conducive to the “seizure” of Cuba. Such actions are accompanied by attempts at sabotage and military or paramilitary aggression. Paradoxically, the main excuse continues to be “freedom,” “democracy,” and “the fight against drug trafficking” . . . while President Trump has pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, imprisoned for drug trafficking.

This journal supports all efforts of governments, such as Mexico’s, and various social and humanitarian organizations, to deliver food, medical supplies, and other necessities to the people of Cuba. Several of us have participated in collecting supplies and donations for the various convoys currently en route to this sister nation

As Social Medicine practitioners, we want to emphasize that in war, no one wins. Thousands suffer, die, or are maimed, and economies are destroyed as the material cost of life support increases, which is why we advocate for the immediate cessation of war and the unrestricted respect for the sovereignty of peoples. In order to protect human lives, health and environmental integrity we urge all scientific associations and social movements to endorse a global antiwar movement against imperialist greed and aggression.

Hasta la victoria siempre! Ever onward to victory

Guerra y Medicina Social

Como profesionales de la Medicina Social, nos posicionamos firmemente. Hemos visto a la sociedad civil y a las y los académicos esforzarse por convencer a la clase política de los EUA y de otros países, a no participar o dejar de participar en el genocidio, pero, hasta ahora, sus oídos han sido sordos. Reconocemos que el ente sionista llamado Israel no va a dejar de cometer crímenes de guerra y genocidios en el Oeste de Asia, a menos que se le obligue.

Nos posicionamos del lado de la paz, los derechos humanos y la equidad incondicionales, porque forman parte integral de los principios y la práctica comprometida de la Medicina Social. Por lo tanto, valoramos los esfuerzos hechos hasta ahora para detener los ataques y entregar ayuda humanitaria a Palestina, Líbano e Irán. También instamos a garantizar la protección a la salud, a las brigadas humanitarias y a la prensa internacional en un conflicto que sistemáticamente ha matado a quiénes luchan en contra de la desinformación o, simplemente, intentan salvar las vidas de civiles inocentes.

Acciones intencionales por parte de Israel han provocado muertes, lesiones y destrucción de las instalaciones necesarias para la supervivencia, y esto no sólo sucede en su región, también ha participado o apoyado militarmente otros genocidios y represiones de gobiernos en todo el mundo. Estas acciones han provocado efectos devastadores en la salud y en la supervivencia de muchos países de América del Sur, América Central, el Caribe, América del Norte, África, Asia y Oceanía. Israel ha descrito a Palestina como un “laboratorio” para probar armamento, sistemas de vigilancia, tácticas militares y estrategias con el fin de que su gobierno y sus empresas pueden venderlos a dictadores y gobiernos represivos alrededor del planeta.

Esta revista ha asumido antes una postura en contra del actual genocidio del pueblo palestino perpetrado por el gobierno de Israel; al 30 de marzo de 2026, es clara su flagrante ocupación de su territorio con base en apartheid. Ahora, pone en marcha una nueva ley que autoriza aplicar la pena de muerte como castigo para las y los palestinos, si son encontrados culpables de ataques mortales considerados como actos de terrorismo. Los EUA y la Unión Europea han financiado, provisto las armas uotorgado cobertura política a este genocidio. En la actualidad, los EUA se han unido con Israel para conformar un equipo que perpetra todo de tipo de agresiones a Irán y a Líbano. Como una de las primeras acciones de guerra, con dos misiles crucero Tomahawk, los EUA realizaron un doble ataque a una escuela primaria para niñas en Minab. Con el primer misil asesinaron a las niñas y a sus maestras; a continuación, 40 minutos más tarde, con el segundo, perecieron los miembros de sus familias, las y los vecinos, y los equipos de rescate, para sumar un total de cerca de 170 decesos de la población civil. Esto demuestra la determinación de los EUA de violar directamente la ley internacional, cometiendo crímenes de guerra, lo que ha sido la marca característica de ataques previos cometidos por Israel en la zona. De acuerdo con esta ley, los líderes de EUA e Israel debieran ser acusados por sus agresiones críminales y guerras innecesarias.

Como adherentes a la Medicina Social reconocemos la determinación social del proceso salud-enfermedad y de las muertes prematuras. No sólo examinamos las causas inmediatas, sino que también identificamos el impacto de las determinaciones sociales a gran escala. En la situación actual, identificamos una gran variedad de dichas determinaciones, incluyendo el uso del sionismo como principio de organización colonialista que ocupa y desaloja tierras palestinas. Las y los adherentes al sionismo incluyen al fundamentalismo cristiano. Adicionalmente, muchos militares estadounidenses han informado que sus oficiales están instando a sus tropas con exhortaciones de que están cumpliendo una misión divina, lo que explícitamente ha sido instruido por miembros del congreso y funcionarios del Departamento de Guerra. Del mismo modo, las autoridades israelíes aluden al “Gran Israel” como una justificación religiosa para perpetuar la guerra y las agresiones.

Como practicantes de la Medicina Social, nos es evidente que el imperio estadounidense está en declive, y la historia nos ha enseñado que la declinación de los imperios conlleva extralimitaciones. En este contexto, los EUA buscan perpetuar su hegemonía a través de violencia. A saber, iniciando esta guerra en contra de Irán, junto con su socio, están contribuyendo al declive del imperio. Esto está sucediendo de una forma generalizada, extrema y peligrosa, lo que puede conducir a una devastadora III Guerra Mundial (en su caso, posiblemente, la última).

Como profesionales de la Medicina Social, reconocemos que los costos de la guerra no son asumidos sólo por parte de las y los combatientes, sino que, cada vez más, también, y principalmente, por los pueblos. Cuando infraestructuras críticas, como los aeropuertos, el transporte marítimo, el transporte terrestre, el combustible, los fertilizantes, los alimentos, el agua, las plantas desalinizadoras, el saneamiento, la electricidad, los hospitales, las clínicas, las escuelas, etc., son destruidas por las bombas, para los pueblos es una condena de muerte, ya que no pueden accededer a lo que hace la vida posible. Mientras tanto, la guerra es promovida por el complejo industrial-militar, que se beneficia en gran medida con ella, escalando aún más las ya extremas desigualdades globales.

Al este del Golfo Pérsico, los países de Asia dependen del flujo de petróleo a través del estrecho de Ormuz, por lo que están en graves aprietos. Su gente y sus trabajadores migrantes ya están empezando a sentir el dolor de los efectos de su cierre.

En América, los EUA están violando flagrantemente todas las normas del derecho internacional. Han atacado y destruido embarcaciones civiles en aguas internacionales con fuego naval o misiles lanzados desde aviones. Han violado la soberanía de Venezuela, sabotearon su agua y sus plantas de energía, y lanzaron un ataque militar, hiriendo a muchos y asesinando a más de 75 venezolanos y cubanos para secuestrar ilegalmente al presidente Nicolás Maduro y a Cilia Flores, su esposa.

Las agresiones en contra Cuba continúan. Su desgaste, que inició en 1962, se ha tornado más cruel por la prohibición de la entrada de petróleo, alimentos y medicamentos, apostando a que la creciente incapacidad interna de contar con los servicios básicos, junto con los esfuerzos para provocar hambre, cree las condiciones propicias para la “confiscación” del país. Tales acciones están acompañadas por intentos de sabotaje y agresiones militares o paramilitares, como se demostró con la captura de una lancha rápida con armas y militares entrenados por personal estadounidense. Paradójicamente, la excusa principal para estas acciones sigue siendo: “libertad”, “democracia”, y “la lucha contra el tráfico de drogas” . . . mientras que el presidente Trump indulta al expresidente de Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, encarcelado precisamente por tráfico de drogas.

Esta revista apoya los esfuerzos de todos los gobiernos, tales como el de México, y de varias organizaciones sociales y humanitarias, para entregar alimentos, suministros médicos y otras necesidades para el pueblo cubano. Varios de nosotras y nosotros hemos participado en la recolección de suministros y donaciones para los diferentes convoyes en ruta hacia esta nación hermana.

Como adherentes a la Medicina Social, queremos enfatizar que en la guerra nadie gana. Miles sufren, mueren, o quedan con mutilaciones; las economías son destruidos al enfrentar el aumento del costo de los soportes de vida, lo cual se suma a las muchas razones por las que abogamos por el cese inmediato de la guerra y el respeto irrestricto a la soberanía de los pueblos.

Con el fin de proteger la vida, la salud y la integridad ambiental, instamos a todas las asociaciones científicas y a los movimientos sociales a sumarse al movimiento global en contra de esta guerra imperialista, su codicia y sus agresiones. ¡!

Hasta la victoria siempre! Ever onward to victory. 

Social Medicine/Medicina Social is a bilingual online journal dedicated to Health for All.