Pacific Northwest Tribes have a historic opportunity to advance their common interests in improved stewardship of the region’s national forests that will benefit present and future generations.   

As the Forest Service makes clear in the Notice of Intent (NOI), “It is imperative that Tribal governments, representatives, and communities across the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) area have the opportunity to engage in amendment of the NWFP to ensure that Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are accurately addressed and to integrate co-stewardship and co-management frameworks for accomplishing plan objectives.”

Likewise, the Forest Service’s preliminary Proposed Action for the NWFP Amendment will “add plan direction incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into planning and plan implementation, including future project design, to identify and support tribal goals, achieve forest management goals and meet the agency’s trust responsibilities.” Examples of potential changes in the NWFP that are under discussion include giving clear direction to encourage cultural burning in cooperation with local tribes, and prioritizing Tribal subsistence needs in the allocation of access to huckleberries and other First Foods. 

More broadly, planning shapes much of what eventually gets done, and not done, in the NWFP area. For tribes, the amendment process offers an opportunity to deliver more substantive co-stewardship agreements and protocols down the line, from programmatic to project-level. Tribes are being invited to help co-create the plan components—from desired conditions to enforceable standards—that will address key issues and tribal interests.