of significant commercial woodland value (25CFR 163.36(b)(3)). ■ Category 4. Minimally Forested Reservation. Comprised of an identifiable forest area of any size determined by the Regional Director to be of minimal commercial value at this time. ■ Category 5. Reservation or Indian property with forest land that the Bureau is charged with some degree of legal responsibility, but the land is not in trust status.
been compacted or contracted from the BIA move through the Office of Self-Governance and the BIA Tribal Priority Allocation processes. More tribes are moving toward this compacting or contracting mechanism to be more involved in the management of their forests. The number of tribes that have moved from being managed by the Bureau has been increasing over the years. Approximately 38% of the forestry programs now have at least some level of tribal inclusion in the operations of the local forest and fire management program. This number is higher on the Category 1 & 2 reservations where the programs are larger and there is more activity. (Figure Intro.3). Although the greatest number of forested reservations are still direct service by the BIA, most of the forested acres are under some form of tribal forestry program (Figure Intro.4), particularly those with larger forests. Staffing trends in across Indian Forestry programs is following the same program management trend. Overall, staffing has decreased since 1991, the BIA-to- tribal staffing ratio has completely flip-flopped over that period. In 1991 the BIA had a total of 1,479 (65%) employees to the 775 working for tribal programs. By 2019 for the IFMAT IV assessment, only 436 (24%) employees were working for the BIA, while tribal employees nearly doubled to 1,394. This is showing that the Indian Self-Determination authorities are working in allowing tribes to manage their own programs and they can provide staffing opportunities.
Figure Intro.2 presents trust acres by forest category across all tribal forests. As seen, 81% of the forested acres are on Category 1 reservations. While this is an important statistic, the other category forests are no less important. Tribal Programs Tribal programs are funded by various authorities and programs. Programs that are managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs are funded through BIA Operations funds, while programs that have
Tribal Trust Forest Acres by Program Category (millions of acres)
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Figure Intro.2. Forest Acres by Forest Category (Source: 2019 F&PA report).
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Figure Intro.3. Forestry Self-governance program by number of tribes (Source: 2019 F&PA report).
24 Assessment of Indian Forests and Forest Management in the United States
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