Task K Findings and Recommendations
K11 Finding
Recommendation ■ A review needs to be conducted to identify reasons why federal agencies cannot provide long-term forest material supply agreements to tribes needed for infrastructure development. The review should revisit the 1944 Sustained Yield Forest Management Act which authorized establishment of sustained yield units on federal lands to promote a stable supply of timber in support of mills and communities. ■ Necessary policy, regulatory, and/or statutory reform should be pursued to resolve this matter. This may require congressional action as past federal policies have constrained or eliminated timber supplies causing the closure of many wood processing facilities within the reservations’ forested areas.
Forest health, habitat improvement, and risk reduction projects performed under co-management agreements may include precommercial and commercial thinning, hazardous fuels reduction, creation of fuel breaks, wildlife and fish habitat improvement, and watershed restoration activities. ■ Under existing infrastructure, there is no or minimal opportunity to recover economic value from the harvest of forest material generated from these activities. Many tribes indicated that they are constrained from accomplishing beneficial forest health and risk reduction activities on reservation lands and under co-management of federal lands, due to lack of nearby milling or processing infrastructure. ■ In most instances, to secure investment in infrastructure, tribes must be able to obtain forest material supply guarantees from geographic areas larger than their reservations. Generally, this larger supply area involves federal forest lands. Efforts to secure the needed supply guarantees from federal agencies have been unsuccessful. ■ The federal agencies have either been unable or unwilling to provide long- term supply agreements. Resolving the forest material supply issue to enable infrastructure development would benefit both tribes and federal land managers.
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