Op-Ed Emphasizes the Need for the Disaster Reforestation Act
This article was published in the Washington Times on November 28, 2025.
America’s Forests Are Under Threat. Congress Must Act Now.
America’s private forests are a strategic national asset. They provide the raw materials for housing, paper, packaging, and renewable energy. They support millions of jobs and anchor rural economies. But that foundation is at risk.
Congress must act swiftly on the Disaster Reforestation Act, or DRA. More than 400 organizations, associations and businesses from across the country have joined this call in a letter to the Trump Administration. Their message is clear: America’s forests and the communities that depend on them are at a breaking point. We can’t afford for that line to be crossed.
On March 1, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to strengthen America’s timber supply. It was an important step that recognized how vital working forests are to our housing market, rural economies and national security. But unless Congress acts, the headwinds facing forest landowners will continue to grow, undermining the very goals this directive seeks to achieve.
In Georgia, the impacts of Hurricane Helene were devastating. The storm caused $1.28 billion in timber losses, erasing decades of investment in minutes. The subsequent closures of International Paper’s Savannah and Riceboro mills, which cut nearly 1,100 jobs, have further destabilized Georgia’s forestry sector. Now, a fourth mill in Georgia has announced it will close, marking the third corporation this year to do so in the state. These closures mirror a national trend as mill shutdowns accelerate across the country, leaving fewer outlets for timber and threatening the entire supply chain.
At the same time, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, tornadoes and ice storms are destroying millions of acres of privately owned forests every year. Invasive pests and diseases are wiping out valuable timber before it reaches a mill. And new international pressures, such as the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation, threaten to impose misguided and unworkable reporting requirements on American producers. These policies jeopardize access to global markets and penalize the very landowners who practice sustainable forest management.
Private forest landowners manage more than 60 percent of U.S. forests, forming the backbone of the timber supply chain. Most forest landowners are multigenerational family businesses, which provide good paying jobs, sponsor local charities, and are pillars of their local communities. Yet when disaster strikes, current tax law fails them. Unlike other sectors of agriculture, forest landowners receive almost no relief when their timber is destroyed. The IRS allows only a minimal deduction for the original cost of the trees, often pennies on the dollar, ignoring decades of investment and real economic loss.
The Disaster Reforestation Act would fix this inequity. It allows landowners to deduct the fair market value of timber lost in federally declared disasters, finally providing the same treatment already afforded to other agricultural losses. This reform would give landowners the financial means to replant, restore and recover, keeping forests in family ownership and preventing the permanent loss of forestland to development.
The consequences of inaction are clear. If landowners cannot afford to replant, forests will be lost not for years but for generations. That means fewer jobs, higher housing costs, weaker rural economies and diminished environmental benefits. Without landowners, we will not have healthy, productive forests. Forests do not just grow back on their own; they require investment, labor and long-term care.
This is not just a forestry issue. It is an economic, national security and rural development issue. America cannot remain strong without strong working forests. Congress must act now to pass the Disaster Reforestation Act and give private forest landowners the tools they need to recover from disaster, maintain their livelihoods and sustain America’s forests for future generations.
Rep. Buddy Carter represents Georgia’s 1st Congressional District.
Scott Jones is CEO of the Forest Landowners Association.