This misbegotten U.S. Forest Service program is a gift to the forestry, wood products, and biomass energy industries. It will use taxpayer funds to subsidize projects that promote cutting down forests and burning them for energy or using them in buildings that will be torn down in a few years. It will worsen climate change, fragment wildlife habitats, increase fire risk, spread invasive species, and ruin scenic and recreational values.
This is another example of why we need to transfer as much of the land under Forest Service administration as possible to the National Park System, which protects forests from this kind of industrial exploitation.