Trump Executive Order on Wildfires Calls for Clearing Public Land (1)

The Trump administration is directing the Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service to speed the removal of vegetation that can fuel wildfires on public lands in an executive order coming out on Jan. 7.

But a group advocating on behalf of the national park system raised concerns that the order doesn’t address climate change impacts on public lands.

The goals of the executive order are to protect communities and watersheds, to prevent wildfires, and to improve the health of forest, rangelands, and other federal lands, the order says. It follows catastrophic wildfires in 2017 and 2018 in California ...