ERI’s Native American Forest and Rangeland Management Program has been busy this year partnering with tribal natural resource management programs, organizations, and federal and state agencies to facilitate restorative management of tribal forests and rangelands. Some highlights include:
- Completing over 30 meetings with local Navajo Chapter officials, Hopi village Community Service Administrators, and Navajo and Hopi nonprofits to complete a Wood for Life (WFL) needs assessment that evaluates local tribes’ firewood needs and distribution capacities. A report will be finalized in the coming months to convey to Forest Service and broader WFL partnership how the vast majority of households rely primarily on wood for heating and that the last leg of wood delivery to individual households requires increased capacity and resources at the local level.
- Participating in a cross-regional WFL field trip organized by the National Forest Foundation (NFF) that brought tribal, Forest Service, and NFF partners from across the west to Flagstaff and Chinle (Navajo Nation) to better understand how WFL works as its model is replicated in other regions. The ERI provided information on the progress and preliminary outcomes of the needs assessment.
- Writing an ERI white paper, currently under external review by partners, exploring: 1) trends in Indigenous forest biomass utilization in the US and Canada through a systematic literature review; 2) the Wood for Life partnership as a local case study of Indigenous forest biomass utilization; and 3) recommendations for further development of Indigenous forest biomass partnerships.
- Attending a three-day workshop hosted by The Nature Conservancy’s Indigenous Peoples Burning Network (IPBN). A primary topic of discussion was barriers to cultural burning on tribal lands. Tribal forest management practitioners from across the country were in attendance.