10
MAY 1, 2024
SMOKE SIGNALS
Tribe helps provide guidance in forest land management report
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals editor
TRIBAL VETERANS
SERVICE OFFICE
Grand Ronde was among several
Tribal nations to give feedback and
guidance on a recent U.S. Forest
Service land management report.
Tribal Timber Resource Pro-
gram Manager Michael Karnosh
reviewed a draft of the report
“Braiding Indigenous and Western
Knowledge for Climate-Adapted
Forests: An Eco-
cultural State of
Science Report,”
which urges that
Tribal steward-
ship practices be
considered in fu-
ture land man-
agement choices
Michael Karnosh by the Forest
Service.
The report was co-authored by
Oregon State University faculty
Cristina Eisenberg and Michael
Paul Nelson. Grand Ronde’s Nat-
ural Resources Department has
been working with Eisenberg, who
serves as the college’s Maybelle
Clark Macdonald Director of Tribal
Initiatives, for the past few years
regarding incorporation of Tribal
ecological knowledge into main-
stream forestry practices.
The authors say their recommen-
dations include “practical and cul-
tural management interventions
that could help avert the loss of
thousands of acres of old-growth
forest.”
“The process was really pretty
open and inclusive,” Karnosh said.
“Our point of contact was Dr. Eisen-
berg and pretty soon after she was
hired, she reached out to Grand
Ronde and other Tribes seeking
input and review. Everybody has
been open and transparent during
Contact the TVSO
Office if you have
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for more event
information.
CTGRTribalVSO@
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Smoke Signals file photo
The Tribe’s Natural Resources Department’s Foresty, Fire and Silviculture
Program perform a prescribed burn on private land near Rickreall in 2013.
Grand Ronde was among several Tribal nations to give feedback and
guidance on a recent U.S. Forest Service land management report and use of
prescribed burns was one of the recommendations.
the process, which was helpful.”
Natural Resources Department
Manager Colby Drake said that one
concept he always tries to correct is
the myth of a pristine, untouched
landscape.
“That concept has never existed
within Indigenous people,” Drake
said. “Humans are part of the eco-
system and the landscape, so to
remove them from large areas of
land (National Forests typically or
reserves) is doing more harm than
good. People have always had a
hand on the land from harvesting
and tending food sources (meadows
and wetland) to utilizing the large
trees for shelter and transportation
(canoes). Fire was put to the ground
annually to help reduce underbrush
and invasive plants, create hunting
MAY 2024 EVENTS
Veterans beginner guitar class
2 p.m. − 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2.
2 p.m. − 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9.
Community Programs Building.
Lunch provided.
Veterans cultural activity:
Research room tour & research
11 a.m. − 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 7.
Chachalu Tribal Museum.
Veterans yoga class
2 p.m. − 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 15.
2 p.m. − 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 29.
Community Programs Building.
Snacks Provided.
Veterans “Romance Scams”
presentation
10 a.m. − 11 a.m. Tuesday, May 21.
Community Programs Building.
Lunch Provided.
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opportunities and made traveling
easier. When you remove humans
from managing these lands over the
last 100-plus years, we’re starting
to see the results and they aren’t
all positive.”
Traditional Indigenous knowl-
edge was not always sought out or
even respected by the government
when it came to forestry practices
and conservation.
Karnosh, who has worked for the
Tribe for 27 years, said that began
to shift in the 2010s.
“I think things started to move
in the direction of Tribal manage-
ment, especially fire management
tools,” he said. “After the 2020 wild-
fire season, it got people talking
even more about it.”
Karnosh added that the Forest
Service report is easy to read and
focuses on different regions of the
country, with the main message
that fire exclusion has real conse-
quences.
“Before 2020, I don’t know how
many people believed that,” he
said. “There was this kind of idea
that the right way to manage was
to leave things alone. This report
counters that really well.”
According to an OSU press re-
lease, the document recommends
different forest management ap-
proaches depending on the region.
“We are very interested in under-
standing how Indigenous knowl-
edge can be used in combination
with western science to improve
our management of all forest condi-
tions including old growth,” Forest
Service Deputy Chief Chris French
said. “This report is a big step in
improving our understanding of
how to do that.”
French added that the Forest
Service, “values knowledge, input
and learning from the Tribal com-
munity.”
The Forest Service sought out
OSU’s help with hosting a series of
roundtable discussion to begin the
information-gathering process from
Tribal experts, which eventually
led to the following recommenda-
tions in the report:
• Adopt proactive stewardship by
investing intentionally in cultural
and prescribed burning, forest
thinning and other active forest
management tools needed to over-
take the influence of wildfires.
• Recognize and respect Trib-
al sovereignty and Indigenous
knowledge by establishing gov-
ernment-to-government co-stew-
ardship partnerships.
• Provide flexibility to manage
landscapes and navigate uncer-
tainties under rapidity changing
conditions. Managing for static
landscape conditions has been
ineffective in regard to changing
disturbances.
• Agency planning, land and re-
source stewardship policies
should be grounded in the ideas of
reciprocity and the responsibility
to future generations.
• Fund adaptive, long-term forest
stewardship and long-term mon-
itoring by learning what works
best as conditions change across
landscapes.
“Our report is deeper than chang-
es in policy and management – it
proposes a fundamental change in
the worldview guiding our current
practices,” Nelson said. “Our writ-
ing team’s cultural, geographic and
disciplinary diversity allows for
guidance on a shift in paradigms
around how we approach forest
stewardship in the face of climate
change.”
Forest threats include wildfire,
heat stress, drought, pathogen
and insect outbreaks, rapid devel-
opment and invasive species, the
authors said, which combine to
degrade habitat as well as lower
the forests’ economic and cultural
value.
“Our forests are in grave danger
in the face of climate change,”
Eisenberg said. “By braiding to-
gether Indigenous knowledge with
western science, we can view the
problems with what is known as
‘Two-Eyed Seeing,’ to develop a
path forward that makes our for-
ests more resilient to the threats
they are facing. That is what this
report is working to accomplish.”