Val Hoyle Emphasizes The Importance Of ‘Consistency’ In Federal Forest Land Management Across The US

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During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR) questioned experts about forest management strategies.

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00:00minutes. Thank you so much and I do have to say my husband went to Michigan State

00:05as well so it's really awkward when they play the Ducks. Other than that it all

00:11works out. I appreciate this panel and thanks for the witnesses especially y'all

00:18from the West Coast for traveling all this way. So you know I've met with many

00:26of you and your tribal leadership on many occasions to discuss the importance

00:30of forest management now certainly in central and southwest Oregon but also

00:35across the West. I think Mr. Redenburg you could talk about one of the Cow Creek

00:40tribe lost 10,000 acres last year because of a fire that started on federal lands

00:47and again 99% of BLM forest lands are in Oregon and then we have this patchwork

00:54set of management so even if you're managing your property your lands you

01:00can't stop the fire from coming over so we you know having consistency in land

01:05management would be it would be a blessing but I think specifically I'll ask you and

01:14anyone else that wants to come in to discuss the challenges you're currently

01:18facing preventing you from doing the co-management work and then maybe touch on

01:24how the timber receipts work or don't work in getting those back. I know we lost

01:30five mills in my district last year so having some consistency and supply also you

01:38know preserving old growth we can do both at the same time.

01:43first thank you for your kind of introduction earlier we can we can have

01:53both the as as you know as other panelists stated this is the oftentimes the

02:01logs are the are the outcome it's the you know as we apply an approach through through

02:11the indigenous lens will you know as we focus on the outcomes rather than how we

02:19get there it really leads us in a different approach and and that that's

02:25the rub as I'm trying to formulate it's a tough question you know we look at

02:35tribal management and it works really well it's beautiful it's it's it's it's

02:39getting it the work done and so we invite tribes into the into the federal land

02:44space to do that work but we don't we don't we haven't changed any of the rules

02:50that have are causing you know the federal agencies to for to fail and and so

02:59that that's a rub is it's not only a different philosophy and approach to

03:03conservation where you know tribes are more proactive stewardship kind of style it's

03:09it's it's the the barriers that have have hindered the Forest Service you know

03:14for decades now are still there we have we haven't addressed those so that's what

03:18this this law this bill really addresses you point at me yes I'm pointing I'm

03:28trying to either either one of you yeah I'd be happy to so regarding the tribal

03:33side of the challenges with code management there's a couple issues number one is

03:37limited capacity on both sides to sustain complex agreements you know fragmented

03:43funding makes long-term planning quite difficult lack of familiarity with existing

03:47tools such as the Tribal Forest Protection Act and the Indian Self-Determination

03:51Education Assistance Act those are barriers and finally delayed and

03:54inconsistent agency engagement particularly with staff turnover

04:02not much to add to that but to maybe give where there's positive examples around

04:06the country it's where there's that consistent source of funding and

04:09staffing so that those relationships get built and maintained through time because

04:13it seems like where there's there's a personal trust between both agency staff and

04:17tribal staff we seem to be getting good work done on the ground I would agree with

04:22that I'd like to thank representative Huffman representative Hurd and

04:27chairman Westerman for their work on today's bill to address these challenges and I am

04:32what I want more than anything is for us to be able to get this going in the next

04:38year so it's not just something that we're talking about at a committee while

04:41we're contemplating what could be we actually have to get this happening on

04:46the ground because we don't have the capacity to deal with wildfire right now and I

04:52think this is an elegant solution before you yield Miss Clark did you want to

04:57respond to the question that Miss Hoyle thank you I'll just add one thing briefly you spoke

05:05about the need for cross-boundary work and I wanted to highlight that in the

05:09forest act I think that's one of its key benefits is that it allows for cross-boundary

05:14planning between tribal trust lands reservation lands and lands that are

05:19administered by federal agencies in a way that frankly we don't have in any of our

05:23existing statutory authorities and so I think that's a huge benefit and one of the

05:26things that we really do struggle with because fire force health doesn't know

05:31boundaries thank you so much gentle ladies time has expired

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