Service closing area in Oregon for wildfire prevention plan months after Trump order to increase timber production

Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted on Thursday by the US Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes national forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk. It wasn’t immediately clear if the evictions were a result of that order, but homeless advocates seized on the timing on Thursday, as US Forest Service officers blocked the access road.