USDA Forest Service Signs 11 New Agreements to Advance Tribal Co-Stewardship of National Forests Alaska, California, North Carolina, Idaho
CASE STUDY
Sequoia National Forest (California)
The Tule River Indian Tribe of California and the Sequoia National Forest developed a co-stewardship memorandum of understanding to establish a framework to better protect ceremonial and traditional activities, food sovereignty, and to preserve and integrate traditional knowledge into Forest Service land management decisions. The agreement provides an opportunity to learn from the Tribe and understand their thousands of years’ worth of knowledge, perspective, and land management values while sharing implementation responsibilities. Boise National Forest (Idaho) The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes have each entered into agreements with the Boise National Forest in the Southwest Idaho Wildfire Crisis Strategy Landscape. These agreements include fuels reduction projects and job training that will help protect communities and important cultural resources by using Tribal resources to reduce wildfire risk on the National Forest System. Additionally, the Boise National Forest manages recreation sites that are culturally significant to the Shoshone- Bannock Tribes. To simultaneously manage for recreation and protect these sites, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and Boise National Forest have also entered an agreement to jointly develop cultural site interpretive displays and outfitter resource information that will educate visitors and enhance their experience. See the following links for the Forest Service’s 2022 and 2023 Annual Reports on their co-stewardship program: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/ files/documents/usda-jso-annual-report- 11.29.2022-doi-signed.pdf https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ documents/co-stewardship-authorities- november-508.pdf
As of November 2022, the U.S. Forest Service has signed 11 co-stewardship agreements with 13 Tribes, and has at least 60 additional agreements with 45 Tribes currently at different stages of review. These co-stewardship agreements aim to protect cultural resources and treaty rights; protect and enable ceremonial traditional activities and food sovereignty; integrate Indigenous Knowledge into land management decision making; care for forests and watershed
health; restore healthy wildlife habitats and fire-adapted ecosystems, and more. Four National Forests and their respective agreements, highlighted below, have demonstrated the rich diversity within government-to-government partnerships protecting the Tribal interests in lands significant to their culture and history and the deep land management knowledge possessed by Tribes to assist the Forest Service in completing mission-critical work.
Tongass National Forest (Alaska)
The Tongass National Forest has entered into separate co-stewardship agreements with the Hoonah Indian Association, the Organized Village of Kake, and the Organized Village of Kasaan—all Tribal partners in Alaska. The agreements include tree thinning work that contributes to the long-standing Hoonah Native Forest Partnership, youth stewardship projects that protect burial sites while providing training and leadership development in Kake, and a framework to sustain culturally critical resources and forest products in Kasaan. These co-stewardship agreements also include sharing traditional ecological knowledge, enabling workforce development, and protecting culturally significant places.
The Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests (North Carolina) The Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests in North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians entered into a historic Tribal Forest Protection Act agreement–the first ever signed in the Forest Service’s Southern Region. The Southern Region covers land from Texas to North Carolina and includes the southeast United States. Coupled with a signed Good Neighbor Agreement, the agreement integrates artisan and cultural knowledge with silvicultural and fire management to inform best practices for managing forests for basket quality white oak trees and other culturally important forest products. This work also reduces fire risk, restores oak forests, improves wildlife habitat, creates early successional habitat, promotes cultural tourism and recreation, and reduces risk to Tribal trust lands.
Top: General Sherman Tree at Sequoia National Forest (Marty Aligata/Wikipedia) Center: After heavy rains, McDowell County, NC, Pisgah National Forest (USFS)
Above Left: Bald eagle taking off from iceberg, Tongass National Forest (Carey Case/USFS) Left: Sunrise over Thomsen Harbor, Tongass National Forest (Jeffrey Wickett/USFS)
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IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 73
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