Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' Net Worth Explored as She Removes Forest Protections

Donald Trump's cabinet picks have come along with a lot of controversy, which includes a lack of qualifications, conflicts of interest, and so much more.

Trump's Agriculture Secretary is no exception. And while many people would like to know how Brooke Rollins has amassed such a fortune while working for organizations like America First Policy Institute, others want to know what she plans to do about police changes that could have disastrous impacts on the country.

Keep reading to learn about Brooke Rollins's net worth and what experts say about her decision to roll back protections around the U.S. so that companies can have more readily available access to the country's supply of lumber.

Government officials that hold high levels of office, like Rollins, are typically required to complete disclosures that will help clear up any concerns surrounding conflicts of interest when it comes to financial situations. Rollins is no exception to this rule, and her confirmation hearing was even pushed back due to a delay in the filing of those all-important financial disclosure forms, according to Politico's E&E News.

That's exactly how the public was able to learn just how much Rollins was making during her time as president of the America First Policy Institute, where she apparently grew her net worth to approximately $1 million.

While people may be interested to know how she's made her money, others are definitely concerned about how she's going to continue making it as the Secretary of Agriculture. That's especially true of her decision to do away with some of the safeguards that have been put in place to protect the country's national forests.

The administration announced that they would be removing the safeguards by way of an emergency declaration, which they made under the guise of creating wildfire protections.

Rollins said that she hoped that speeding up environmental reviews would grant U.S. companies quicker access to lumber harvested from our own national forests, and it would be applied to 176,000 square miles of real estate, according to HuffPost. These areas are said to be at greater risk of wildfires, thanks to diseases and pest control infestations.

However, many experts are saying that this emergency declaration could have unintended risks.

That's because it will remove the ability for concerned groups — like local government, citizens, and even tribal boards — from being allowed to challenge any logging proposal before they're approved. That has some experts sounding the alarm.

“This is all about helping the timber industry,” a member of the environmental activist group Earth Justice told HuffPost. “It’s not looking at what will protect communities. It’s about the number of board feet, the number of trees you are pulling down.”

To that end, it does sound like the Forest Service is looking to ramp up production significantly, and they've been told to increase timber production by 25 percent over the next several years.