tation. An example from my home on the Colville Reservation includes devel- opment of Emergency Stabilization (ES) and Burned Area Rehabilitation (BAR) plans for post fire restoration. With these plans we have implemented hun- dreds of soil stabilization, watershed protection, and noxious weed control projects. In addition we have planted approximately 15 million trees over the last 6 years in response to timber losses that exceed one billion board feet since 2015. Colville was neither staffed nor funded to take on a monumental task like that, but with an immense amount of work and some help from our BIA partners we have accomplished most of those restoration goals. Restoration goals that will hopefully see a forest return to provide those sacred resourc- es to our future generations. This combination of things makes tribal resource management unique. In addition to the forestry and fire staff, tribes see that type of dedication in wildlife, fisheries, cultural plant, water management, and other resource professionals. They use an integrated approach that recognizes the tradeoffs of management actions but utilizes their long-term vision and guidance they receive from tribal elders and tra- ditional knowledge to make informed decisions. That flexibility is rare in gov- ernment agencies. However, Indian country can serve as a model, or at a minimum an example, of how proactive resource management can be accom- plished with limited resources. With a growing recognition of the value of this approach, and interest from Congress, the administration, and state and federal agencies about the benefits of co-stewardship, the future provides great potential to increase the influ- ence and approaches to tribal man- agement across the entire country for the benefit of all U.S. citizens.
574 Tribes
Diversity 1
Diversity 2
The human-caused Northstar Fire burned 217,000 acres, mostly on the Colville reservation in northeast Washington in 2015.
1994NWFP
Nov2022
Evergreen
17
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