Capacity for building climate response into forestry programs There are clear gaps in most tribal forest programs’ capacities to fully integrate climate information and science-based models. There are few funding or training programs to support hiring and/ or developing staff. The demands of implementing the existing forest management programs and responsibilities while responding to rapidly expanding fire management and fuels needs, reforestation backlogs, and competing for grants funding have not allowed for hiring, training, and developing expertise in forest-climate interactions. Access to science and problem- solving partnerships with the research community Some tribes described erosion and breakdowns in the working connections between the forestry program and the research community. Some federal researchers are reluctant to get involved in practical management questions and issues for fear of being entangled in political conflict, even if inadvertently. By contrast, tribes that kept close, long-term relationships with members of the research community were quite complimentary and put great trust in their research partners to keep them informed on changes in the science and to help validate and translate science findings. Many tribes were still not aware of the scaled-up science delivery networks and new collaborations to provide science data and tools. Although each of these programs as well as the Cooperative Extension Service have networks of tribal liaisons, these forestry programs were either unaware of them or did not judge the services
Dead older timber replaced by overstocked young pine on the Yakama Reservation in Washington state. PHOTO CREDIT: VINCENT CORRAO
as relevant to their issues. There is still fruitful opportunity to develop and better coordinate the delivery of climate/forests science and integrate traditional knowledge into options for (1) integrating climate easily into familiar and required planning and management frameworks, (2) addressing tribe-level climate response priorities and vulnerabilities, and (3) compensating for some of the capacity gaps in forestry staffs. Suitability of forest management and integrated resource plans and planning
processes in preparing tribes for the changing climate As explained in Task F, BIA guidance for forest plans and planning processes does not address climate change, neither is it discussed in the planning manuals and handbooks. Guidance and priority are needed for trust lands and for non- trust lands, given the rapidly evolving mixed system for self- governance tribes. Many tribes remarked that they do not use the BIA handbooks and manuals very much because they are cumbersome and not regularly
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