Public Lands Belong to Everyone — Including Loggers
Why the Northeast’s Forest Workforce Deserves a Seat at the Table
Conversations regarding the use and management of public lands across the Northeast seem to be ramping up at a furious pace. The PLC seems to be spending more and more time being part of them, which is very important because when you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
However, as we know from experience, when conversations about public lands arise, the loudest voices often come from advocates for preservation, conservation, and outdoor recreation.
Those voices matter.
But they are not the only voices that matter in the conversation.
Across the Northeast, millions of acres of public forests are managed for multiple purposes. These lands provide recreation opportunities, wildlife habitat, clean water, climate benefits, renewable forest products, and economic opportunities for the communities that surround them. Public land agencies throughout the region have long recognized that balancing these multiple uses is a core part of their responsibility.
Yet when discussions arise about how these lands should be managed, one group is often underrepresented: the people who work in the forests and the PLC has made sure that this is not going to continue.
Loggers and forest truckers all have a direct stake in the future of public lands. Their livelihoods and the health of the forest are not mutually exclusive. Their families live in the communities supported by the forest economy, and many have spent decades working on the very landscapes being discussed.
If public lands truly belong to everyone, then their voices deserve to be part of the conversation just as much as someone who doesn’t appreciate where their forest products come from.
Public Forests Have Always Been Managed
A common misconception is that forest management and public lands are somehow incompatible.
The reality is that public forests throughout the Northeast have long been actively managed to meet a variety of public needs. Forest management plans often include goals related to recreation, wildlife habitat, water quality, forest health, climate resilience, and sustainable timber production. These objectives are not new and should not be treated as such.
In fact, active forest management is what helps public lands achieve many of these goals.
As our membership knows, carefully planned harvesting can improve forest health, improve wildlife habitat, encourage forest regeneration, support local economies, and provide renewable materials that society depends upon every day. At the same time, public forests will continue to offer abundant opportunities for hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, and other forms of recreation.
Across the Northeast, land managers have long worked to balance these uses. Public forests were never intended to serve a single purpose. They are managed to provide a variety of benefits for a variety of users, often requiring difficult decisions and thoughtful compromise.
The debate should not be whether public lands are managed, but how they are managed with an emphasis on management and not leaving the forest in a natural state.
The People Missing From the Conversation
One challenge in public land discussions is that the people most affected by forest management decisions are often the least likely to be in the room when those decisions are made.
Loggers and forest truckers do not typically spend their days attending public hearings, legislative sessions, or stakeholder meetings.
Logging and trucking are demanding professions. A logger’s plans for the day can change with the weather, road conditions, equipment breakdowns, market demands, or safety concerns. Truck drivers spend long hours on the road. The majority are often working in remote locations far from meeting rooms and government offices.
Quite simply, many loggers and truckers cannot leave the jobsite in the middle of the day to attend a meeting or hearing several hours away.
That doesn’t mean they don’t care.
In fact, few people have a greater stake in the future of our forests.
Their livelihoods depend on sustainable forestry. Their communities depend on the jobs, and economic activity forests help create. Many have spent generations working in the woods and possess firsthand knowledge of forest conditions that can only come from years of experience on the ground.
Public participation is essential, but expertise matters too. The people who work in the woods every day have firsthand knowledge of forest health, regeneration, wildlife habitat, access infrastructure, and changing conditions on the landscape. Their experience may not answer every policy question, but it provides valuable perspective that should not be overlooked simply because they are often too busy doing the work to attend every meeting where decisions are made.
Yet because they are busy working in the forest, their perspectives can be absent from public discussions.
That is one reason the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast (PLC) exists.
The PLC was created to help give a voice to the men and women who work in the woods every day but may not have the time, resources, or opportunity to advocate for themselves in policy discussions. The organization ensures that when decisions affecting forests are being made, the perspective of the forest workforce is represented alongside those of recreation advocates, conservation groups, scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders.
Meaningful public engagement requires hearing from all stakeholders, not just those who have the ability to attend every meeting.
Loggers and Truckers Are Part of the Public
Too often, forestry discussions create a false distinction between “the public” and “the industry.”
But loggers and truckers are members of the public too.
They are community members, taxpayers, volunteers, parents, coaches, and local business owners. Many live in rural communities where forestry remains a cornerstone of the local economy.
Across the Northeast, forests continue to support thousands of jobs and businesses. The impact extends far beyond the woods, supporting truck drivers, mechanics, equipment dealers, sawmills, manufacturers, fuel suppliers, and countless small businesses that help sustain rural communities.
The regional forest products and trucking sectors contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity annually and help maintain the infrastructure and workforce needed to keep working forests productive. When public land decisions affect access to timber resources, forest management opportunities, or the long-term health of the forest resource, those decisions can have real impacts on families and communities throughout the Northeast.
Those impacts deserve consideration just as surely as recreational and conservation interests do.
Conservation and Forest Management Are Not in Opposition
Perhaps the most important point is that this is not a choice between conservation and forest management.
Modern forest management is built on the principle that forests can provide multiple benefits at the same time. Well-managed forests support wildlife habitat, protect water resources, store carbon, provide recreational opportunities, and produce renewable materials that society uses every day.
Many conservation organizations, researchers, and public land agencies increasingly recognize that healthy forests require thoughtful stewardship and management. Public lands are often managed specifically to balance environmental, social, and economic objectives.
The best outcomes rarely come from choosing one value over another.
They come from finding balance.
A Stronger Conversation About Public Lands
Everyone who uses and values public forests should have a place in the conversation about their future.
That includes hikers.
It includes hunters.
It includes conservation groups.
It includes scientists.
And it includes the people who spend their working lives in the woods — loggers and forest truckers.
Loggers and forest truckers are not asking for the loudest voice in public land decisions, but they are asking the same voice that others have.
As debates over public lands continue across the Northeast, we should remember that the people who harvest timber, haul wood, manage forests, and support the forest economy are not outsiders to these discussions. They are an essential part of the communities that depend on healthy forests.
The future of our public lands will be strongest when decisions are informed by a diversity of perspectives, including the practical, on-the-ground knowledge of the people who work in the forest every day.
Public lands belong to everyone. The conversation about their future should too.