House hearing discusses how tribal managers do more with a fraction of funds given to Forest Service

E&E News
By Jessica Estepa
April 11, 2014

Given the successes of tribal forest managers, appropriators should consider doling out more money to those programs, witnesses yesterday told the House Natural Resources Committee.

The recommendation is based on a finding in a congressionally mandated report released last year that the amount of money appropriated to forest management by tribes is equal to one-third of the funds given to the Forest Service.

"Indian forestry appears to be at a tipping point, as decades of 'begging Peter to pay Paul' cannot be sustained," said Larry Mason, a research scientist who worked on the Third Indian Management Assessment Team, which released the report.

Carole Lankford, vice chairwoman of Montana's Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, asked lawmakers to imagine how they would manage their staffs with two-thirds less resources. Since people would be doing multiple jobs with little compensation, this could lead to mismanagement.

Both committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) agreed that managers have been asked to do more with less.

"We know that the appropriations are inadequate," DeFazio said. "Unfortunately, we aren't the ones who get to appropriate dollars."

He noted that lawmakers could press their colleagues to consider more funding for those programs, especially given the federal government's obligation to fulfill its trust responsibilities for tribal lands.

Michael Black, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, noted that the agency knows the forestry programs are underfunded but that they are competing with the variety of other issues managed by BIA.

Yet despite the funding discrepancy, witnesses said tribal managers have been better able to manage their resources, whether that was in terms harvesting millions of board feet or managing their hazardous fuels reduction programs. Mason said these successes make tribal forest programs an enigma.

But it's much simpler than that, said Brenda Meade, chairwoman of Oregon's Coquille Indian Tribe. She attributed the success of her tribe's forests -- the only forests that meet all of the guidelines and policies under the Northwest Forest Plan -- to a holistic approach. The managers consider the potential social, economic and ecologic impacts when making decisions.

Further, tribal managers act more quickly than federal managers do when it comes to issues such as salvaging wood, said Phil Rigdon, president of the Intertribal Timber Council. He pointed to a wildfire that occurred on lands managed by his tribe, the Yakama Indian Nation. Insects and disease require swift action on affected wood, because they diminish the quality of the wood and, eventually, make the resource worthless.

"We were ready to move as soon as the fire had burned out," he said. "The Forest Service, if they had that same thing, they would spend so much time that it would take three or four months."