PORTLAND â The Trump administration is removing a decades-old ban on logging large trees in six national forests across Eastern Oregon and Southeast Washington. USDA Undersecretary James Hubbard signed off on the decision on Friday, Jan. 15, amending the rule that prohibits cutting down any trees larger than 21 inches in diameter. The 21-inch harvest rule is part of a broader suite of management standards, known as the Eastside Screens, adopted in 1995 to protect wildlife habitat and water quality on roughly 10 million acres of federal land in the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, Malheur, Ochoco, Deschutes and Fremont-Winema national forests. Rather than a blanket restriction on logging large trees, the U.S. Forest Service will replace the 21-inch rule with a more flexible guideline that generally calls for protecting old-growth forests, but allows land managers to make exceptions if they meet the agencyâs long-term restoration goals.