HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Tribal governments will be allowed to thin brush and small trees on federal lands adjacent to their reservations under a new federal law intended to help prevent the spread of wildfires.
The legislation, which President Bush signed this week, creates a framework for tribes to work with the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management on proposals to reduce trees and brush along tribal-federal boundaries.
``Fires have a tendency to get rolling, and when they build a head of steam, it doesn't matter what the (land) ownership pattern is,'' Mike LeBrun, a forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Billings, said Friday. ``They're going to go right over the line.''
That's what occurred last year in parts of the West.
California fires that advanced from federal land last fall swept onto 11 Indian reservations, where they burned 30,000 acres, said Adam Vogt, a spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. She and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., sponsored House Resolution 3846, which Bush signed Thursday.
Offered as the Tribal Forest Protection Act, it has been likened to the 2003 law that expanded Forest Service authority to thin trees on the agency's lands. That law also was promoted as a way to lessen fire risk.
The new measure will ``put logs in the log yard and create jobs on the reservation,'' said Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. ``It's an important economic development tool for the tribes.''
Those undertaking forest projects may be paid, or receive trees that are cut in compliance with restrictions on tree size and age.
Considerations as federal officials weigh which tribal proposals to approve include treaty rights and cultural affiliation with the land.
The Forest Service already had a few tribal stewardship contracts in place before passage of the legislation.
They included one between Ottawa National Forest and the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, in Michigan. The contract called for thinning some stands of red pine trees. In return, the Lac Vieux Desert Band was to receive the trees for use in constructing a building for spiritual ceremonies.
