1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Block the Trump administration's proposal to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule — and investigate the blatant conflict of interest driving it. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz is a former timber industry lobbyist and executive who is now dismantling the very regulations that limited his former employers' profits. That's not forest management. That's corruption. Schultz previously led the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a timber trade group, and served as vice-president at Idaho Forest Group — a company that has since increased its lobbying spending and reported advocating directly with the agency Schultz now runs. Since his confirmation, the American Forest Resource Council, which includes Idaho Forest Group, has spent over $210,000 lobbying to expand harvesting in national forests. A PotlatchDeltic CEO summed it up on an earnings call: "We know the new Forest Service chief." Meanwhile, rolling back the roadless rule threatens 400 endangered species and opens 45 million acres of protected land to logging and drilling — while Forest Service data shows wildfires are nearly three times more likely to start near roads. This is a textbook revolving-door scandal playing out on public land. Demand an independent ethics investigation into Schultz's role, and use every available legislative tool to stop this rollback before it's finalized.