A Toolbox of Resources

American Indian tribes have inherent rights to national forestland and resources codified in treaties, the US Constitution, statutes, Presidential Executive Orders, and case law. These rights require a government-to government relationship between each tribe and the US Forest Service (USFS), which recognizes federal trust responsibilities and tribal sovereignty. This is implemented through government-to-government consultation. Along with consultation, the USFS seeks to create opportunities to work in partnership with tribes to support natural resource management for mutual benefit. The purpose of this article is to explore partnership building and collaboration between the USFS and American Indian tribes in the context of the USFS tribal relations program. The article outlines successful practices and barriers for building partnerships between federally recognized tribes and the USFS. Qualitative research methods were used to analyze 26 semi-structured interviews with USFS employees with tribal relations duties to understand their perspectives on building partnerships and fulfilling the government trust responsibility with American Indian tribes.

"Braiding Indigenous and Western Knowledge for Climate-Adapted Forests: An Ecocultural State of Science Report" advocates for a new approach to forest management that integrates Indigenous knowledge systems with Western science, creating a "braided" understanding to develop climate-resilient forest restoration strategies, drawing on the deep ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples alongside the analytical power of Western scientific methods to better adapt forests to changing climate conditions, prioritizing place-based stewardship practices and acknowledging the interconnectedness between cultural and ecological systems for long-term forest health.

Peer Learning Session Objectives  - Learn about unique landscape features and creative management approaches in CFLR projects. - Consider how applications of site-specific research and subject matter expertise result in restoration of key areas that have outsized impacts on landscapes or ecosystems. - Solicit feedback from the landscape restoration Peer Learning community to help inform topics and direction for the next series of peer learning sessions. Suggested Audience  The suggested audience for this session includes collaborative groups, Forest Service staff, and partners and alumni of the CFLR Program.

Peer Learning Session Objectives  - Engage with CFLRP practitioners and hear lessons learned from long-term forest restoration projects. - Learn how social dynamics and partnerships drove accomplishments and how challenges were overcome. - Learn about landscape scale change over time, and how management strategies evolve over the long term. Suggested Audience  The suggested audience for this session includes collaborative groups and participants, US Forest Service staff, practitioners and planners of landscape-scale restoration work, and partners and alumni of CFLR Programs.

Cooperative agreements can establish collaborative intergovernmental relationships for the purpose of managing public lands. This webpage from the University of Washington's School of Law outlines key mechanisms available to Tribal Nations and federal agencies to create or maintain such relationships. These tools differ in terms of purpose and scope, including the distinction between co-management and co-stewardship, which is not always clear. DOI and USDA’s reaffirmed commitment to co-stewardship presents opportunities for the meaningful integration of Tribal and federal interests in public lands management. Accordingly, this section adopts a distinction between two categories of agreements: 1) those that establish decision making and management protocols and governing arrangements and 2) those that focus more on funding and project-level activities.

ArcGIS StoryMap of current TFPA project examples in the Great Lakes area in Eastern Region of the Forest Service.

The Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) was passed in 2004. The purpose of the TFPA is to protect tribal trust lands at risk and restore lands administrated by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management such as catastrophic fires, insects, and disease. The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill provided, for the first time, authority for the Forest Service to execute "638" agreements to undertake TFPA work under the Indian Self-Determination Education and Assistance Act (Public Law 93-638). Forest Service 638 authority was initiated as a demonstration effort. Forest Service, ITC and various Tribes are working to expand the use and availability of this and other authorities. Find resources and reports around the TFPA here.

Steen-Adams, Michelle M.; Lake, Frank K.; Jones, Chas E. Jr.; Kruger, Linda E. 2023. Multiple aspects of forest land management present research partnership opportunities for the USDA Forest Service and Tribal Nations. These aspects include forests, fuels, and ecocultural resources that often are appropriate to manage at the landscape scale. The main topics of this report are partnership benefits and challenges, effective practices, partnership models, and the partnership-building process.

This Tribal Partnership Comparison Matrix from the US Forest Service serves to aid in the decision-making and implementation of Shared Stewardship and partnership strategies between Tribal Nations, the Forest Service, and other partners. This Matrix explores several ways in which Tribes can engage in work with the Forest Service and delineates factors that uniquely impact Tribal Nations as sovereign entities. Project type, partner requests, trust land adjacency, and other criteria will all affect the decision to pursue any given agreement tool.

This series of trainings from the US Forest Service is for anyone who is working in land management that is interested in learning more about Indigenous perspectives. Click the link to explore the collection of videos and resources.