Cutting the public out of land management via the federal Fix Our Forests Act is unacceptable, writes Maleek Mckenzie. (Submitted by U.S. Forest Service)

The federal Fix Our Forests Act is disastrous.

It prioritizes logging over proven community wildfire protections like defensible space. By bypassing environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act, it opens federal lands to logging interests without public oversight, potentially worsening wildfire risk by removing fire-resilient, old-growth trees.

FOFA severely damages ecosystems. It allows NEPA consultation after projects, expands categorical exclusions from 3,000 to 10,000 acres, and guts the ESA by exempting consultation for new species or threats. This harms water quality, fragments habitats and removes carbon-storing old trees. These rollbacks directly hurt citizens reliant on healthy forests.

As a lifelong asthmatic in Hillsboro, I know childhood asthma is already incredibly difficult. Worsening air quality from more intense wildfires due to FOFA’s logging will directly threaten my health and countless others with respiratory conditions.

Cutting the public out of land management is unacceptable. FOFA limits public input and legal challenges. We need real solutions: home hardening, defensible space, a fully-staffed Forest Service and climate action, not a giveaway to industries that will worsen fires and erode public input.

Democrats: oppose FOFA.

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Maleek Mckenzie is a Hillsboro resident.