The Forestry program provides professional forest management services to Native allotment owners in Southeast Alaska. Services include:
- Timber Sales
- Reforestation of Previously Harvested Allotments
- Timber Trespass Investigations
- Tree Thinning
- Fire Preparedness
Forest Resource Analysis Project
In order to properly manage Native allotment properties in the Southeast Alaska Management Unit, we have to know what these properties look like, the forest resources on the land, and how to access the property. The last inventory of the forest resources on Southeast Native allotments was done in 1983–84 by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) staff foresters. At that time there were only 6,369 acres of Native allotments that were in either “approved” or “certified” status by the Bureau of Land Management (regulating agency). Today there are more than 12,000 acres of allotments (more allotments being adjudicated) in approved or certified status.
Management responsibility for a majority (BIA still manages allotments in several communities) of these allotments has been transferred from BIA to the Forestry program here at Tlingit & Haida. Since there are almost twice the acres of Native allotments now, and a new agency is charged with land management, it was necessary to conduct a new inventory of these allotments. The Forestry program submitted a proposal and received funding to perform an inventory in the fall of 1999. The inventory field work was performed in 2000, and that information was compiled into a report completed in 2002 and titled “Native Allotment Forest Resource Analysis for the SE Alaska Management Unit.”
Eligibility Requirements
- Must be tribally enrolled or demonstrate proof of eligibility for tribal enrollment or provide a Certificate of Indian Blood (CIB) from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
- Must own an interest in a Native allotment or townsite in one of the communities served.