Task H Findings and Recommendations
H1 Finding
Recommendation ■ Review statutory, regulatory and policy requirements for Indian forest management including budget justification and reporting processes and determine needed reforms to address a change in the balance between timber production and stewardship. ■ Quantify the changes from AAC emphasis toward other forest values, while encouraging tribes to include all important values in their management plans. ■ Develop a table of authorities for self- governance tribes, compact, 638, direct services. This should include the allottees. Recommendation ■ Clarify the relationship between BIA and tribes with respect to acquired fee lands. Allow tribes to integrate management of trust and fee forestlands, and co- management agreements into a single FMP. Recommendation ■ Review existing federal requirements pertaining to FMPs for Indian forest lands and implement reforms which will accommodate the full range of ownerships and agreements. Recommendation ■ An independent review is needed of the of federal rules and policies which restrict use of local fire suppression resources, especially for initial attack, and the process for allocation of national resources for fire suppression on Indian lands. ■ In furtherance of the principles and purpose of the recent (June 2021) MOU between the DOI Office of Wildland Management and ITC, reforms should be proposed which will result in dedicated initial attack resources and more effective response to wildfires. Response should be focused on use of local resources and suppression while fires are small.
At many locations, the AAC has been reduced and management of tribal forests has shifted from a focus on timber production toward forest stewardship.
H2 Finding
Tribes are increasingly acquiring fee land, some of which is brought into trust, and acquired fee land is often not within the reservation boundaries.
H3 Finding
State and federal lands occur within reservation boundaries, and co- management agreements, land exchanges, stewardship agreements for management of lands within the reservation and adjacent to it are increasingly common. Centralization of wildfire suppression programs (national and regional control of allocation of resources) has had serious negative impacts on tribal ability to respond quickly at the local level and keep fires small.
H4 Finding
156 Assessment of Indian Forests and Forest Management in the United States
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