USDA Tribal Forum - Tribal Relations and Engagement R&D

Description

Please join the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service for a May 9, 2024, Tribal Forum on the Tribal Relations Directives and revisions to the Research & Development Tribal Engagement Roadmap.

The Tribal Relations Directives set forth the national policy, practice, and procedure for developing, maintaining, and enhancing the agency’s government-to-government relationships with federally recognized Tribes and government-to-corporation relationships with Alaska Native Corporations. In consultation with Tribal officials and through staff-to-staff collaboration, the agency seeks to review, update, and revise the Tribal Relations Directives. The first draft of the proposed amendments will be presented to you at the Tribal Forum. The draft policies will be distributed for your written review and input shortly following the Forum.

The 2015 Forest Service Research and Development Tribal Engagement Roadmap is a guide for collaboration between Forest Service researchers and scientists with Tribal Nations to help develop ethical and significant research partnerships. In order to appropriately work with Tribal Nations, the Forest Service must ensure Tribal sovereignty and self-determination are respected while upholding the federal trust responsibility in science production.

The attached “Tribal Relations Directives & Research and Development Tribal Engagement Roadmap: National Policy and Document Background” provides further background and the agency’s intent behind updating these documents.

This engagement builds on the first Tribal Forum about the proposed amendments to the Tribal Relations directives, which was held on August 29, 2023. Proceedings of the August 29, 2023, Tribal Forum and the invitation to participate in government-to-government consultation are available on the Forest Service Office of Tribal Relations National Consultation Calendar webpage at https://www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/tribal-relations/national-consultation.

Tribal Forum Details
Date: May 9, 2024
Time: 2:00 p.m. eastern
Register: Meeting Registration – Zoom (zoomgov.com)

**If the above registration link does not work, please copy and paste this URL into your web browser: https://www.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItdempqDMqHxEMvrqMZ6HfekHKSkQbbF0#/registration

The target publication date of the Tribal Relations Directives is November 2024 and consultation may be requested at any time. The Office of Tribal Relations continues to coordinate consultation requests received at SM.FS.otrtribalcon@usda.gov. You may request consultation with national, regional, and local consulting officials on national-level policies, procedures, and actions. While relationships between regional and local Forest Service line officers (Regional Forester, Forest Supervisor, and District Ranger) and their staff and Tribal leaders and their staff are indispensable, our intent is to provide Tribal leaders with more deliberate opportunities to participate in policy formulation through collaboration and consultation with the national-level consulting official, Deputy Chief of State, Private, and Tribal Forestry John Crockett.

Please contact your Regional Tribal Relations Program Manager or Reed Robinson, Director of the Office of Tribal Relations in Washington, D.C., at SM.FS.otrtribalcon@usda.gov to request consultation on the proposed revision of the Tribal Relations Directives, or for more information.

Tribal Engagement Roadmap

FS Tribal Relations Directives-RD Roadmap

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