Table B.2. Percent of Tribal Trust Forest Acres that are classified as commercial forest
IFMAT IV Commercial Forest 1
IFMAT IV Forest Acres (thousand acres)
IFMAT I Percent of Total Forest Acres
IFMAT IV Percent of Total Forest Acres
Commercial Forest Acres 1 (thousand acres)
IFMAT Region
Eastern
423
366
86% 90% 73% 40% 44% 53% 63%
57% 90% 69% 55% 96% 63%
Lake States Northwest Southwest
1,815 4,046
1,632 2,964 5,062
12,575
Alaska
418
182
IFMAT IV Total IFMAT I Total
19,278 15,899
10,263
9,941
Sources: 2019 Catalog of Forest Acres (As revised) IFMAT I Percentages based on Table 8 in the IFMAT I report 1 Commercial Forest = commercial timberland plus commercial woodlands
The standing volume on tribal commercial forest lands (as measured in board feet International Rule) has increased across regions with large positive net growth in each region (Table B.3). This consistent and stable growth demonstrates the potential for long-term sustainability on these lands and for these tribes. Tribal lands in the West continue to experience significant mortality from wildfires and other disturbances associated with drought, but typically less than neighboring non-industrial landowners; for example, National Forests currently experience 39-113% greater mortality across all regions. Southwestern federal lands specifically had over twice the mortality rate as tribal lands (187 bf/ac/year) resulting in -4 bf/ac/year net growth for that region. Tribal lands are generally less productive (in terms of BF/acre/ year volume growth rates) than neighboring lands except in the Southwest region; mortality rates are varied by region but are consistently lower than on National Forest lands; and harvest
removals are consistently lower than industrial lands except in the Southwest (Figure B.2). Much of this pattern can be explained by inherent site productivity differences and different management objectives within the different landowner groups, stand age distributions and management intensity. For example, industry tends to own higher-productive lands and manage them for optimal financial return on shorter rotations. Timber management on tribal lands maintains moderate levels of growth, well above the rate of removal (31-61% of net growth), but often limited by inherent site quality and high mortality rates in all regions other than the East. National Forest lands typically
grow more volume per acre per year than tribal lands, but less of that annual volume growth is harvested (only 10-28%) and mortality exceeds harvests. In the highly productive Northwest, tribal forestlands are much less productive (based on net board foot growth) than all other lands except for National Forest lands, which are not statistically different (Figure B.2). This is likely due to large variability in productivity moving west to east across the region, and the effect of that spatial pattern on ownership; the dominant landowners in the drier forests of the inland Pacific Northwest are tribes and the National Forest. In the Southwest, however, tribal lands are equally or more
Table B.3. Net board foot volume change on Tribal Trust commercial timberlands by consolidated BIA regions, based on 2021 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data.
Bf/Ac/Year
IFMAT Region Net Change
Gross Growth Mortality (-) Harvest (-)
Eastern
155.0
278.5 140.4 406.1 205.4
29.7 35.9
93.8 16.3 59.3
Lake States Northwest Southwest
88.2
193.7 128.2
153.1
68.2
9.0
Task Findings and Recommendations 81
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