Daines: CSKT Forest Management Practices Should Serve as Model for National Forest Management

Press Release

Representative Steve Daines today called on the U.S. Forest Service to look to Montana Tribes' forest management practices as an example for how the federal government can better protect the health of National Forests and surrounding communities.

This morning, the House Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing on "Tribal Forest Management: A Model for Promoting Healthy Forests and Rural Jobs." Carole Lankford, Vice Chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), testified before the Committee at Daines' invitation and shared both the successes and challenges facing the Tribe as it works to manage forestland on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

"I recognize the immense challenge of sustaining healthy forests understaffed and underfunded compared to the Forest Service. That's unacceptable, and I think we can save a lot of money in the Forest Service if we lifted some of the regulatory burdens and processes that fuel litigation," Daines stated during this morning's hearing. "What impresses me most is how tribes stretch their resources thin and still are better managers of their forests. I think it shows how important tribal sovereignty is--that tribes know best how to manage their own land, where their ancestors have lived for centuries. We must allow the flexibility for tribes to continue to do so."

More than one-third of the Flathead Indian Reservation is forested. Lankford noted that in spite of limited funds and resources available to the Tribe, CSKT Fuels personnel have effectively managed its forestland to protect the health of the forests and create jobs on the Flathead Indian Reservation-- treating over 7,638 acres per year in hazardous fuels reduction treatments, including thinning, piling, pile burning, and understory burn projects, in the past ten years alone.

"We have had a fuels reduction program since 2004 and we are very proud of the success in this regard," Lankford stated. "We were the first Tribe in the country to treat ten thousand acres in one year. As a result of our effects, when the Chippy Creek [fire] crossed state and federal lands, before it reached the Flathead Reservation in 2007, we were able to get it extinguished more effectively than other jurisdictions had been able to do. Firefighters from other jurisdictions, who were helping us as we helped them, commented on how effective the fuels reduction program in this part of the Reservation was."

"We think the rest of the country could learn much from this type of management," Lankford continued. "Had our National Forests been managed similarly, this country wouldn't be having the massive forest fires that are occurring with great frequency in recent years."

While testifying before the Committee, Lankford also noted the financial and regulatory barriers facing the Tribe's forest management efforts.

"Various studies, including the recent IFMAT (Indian Forest Management Assessment Team) study, show that Tribes are getting about one-third of the amount of money per acre to manage forests as other federal agencies are--including the U.S. Forest Service, which manages immediately adjacent and therefore greatly similar lands in the Lolo National Forest in Montana," Lankford stated. "This has become even more of a challenge when the economy is bad and the call for wood products is off, while at the same time we must comply with various regulations and laws."

Lankford also noted that recent changes to the way the Department of Interior distributes Hazardous Fuels Reduction funding has directly threatened the Tribe's ability to effectively manage and treat its forests.

"You can therefore imagine how surprised [we were] when the Administration came up with a new method of allocating fuels dollars, called the "Hazardous Fuels Prioritization and Allocation System,' or HFPAS, in which they have wiped out almost the entire fuels reduction program. HFPAS was a new formula and was also biased in how it could be applied and how easily the formula could be gamed--that our fuels budget would have been reduced by 94 percent, and other Tribes by even larger amounts."

Daines noted that his forest management reform legislation, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, contains important reforms that ensure the U.S. Forest Service prioritization of Tribal Forest Protection Act projects, allowing tribes and the USFS to coordinate in hazardous fuel reduction.

"This Committee passed an amendment to H.R. 1526, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, that I offered, which would require additional focus on improvements to the Tribal Forest Protection Act projects," Daines stated. "That's just being a good neighbor--that's where the federal government can be a better neighbor of Indian Country, and I look forward to continue to move forward with progress and getting that bill passed."

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