Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests Expands Good Neighbor Partnership with Tribal, State, and Local Governments

Shared from Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest webpage: Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests - News & Events (usda.gov)

In recent weeks, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests have signed agreements with the Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Department of Lands, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and Idaho County to collaborate on major restoration projects across the forests. These partnerships leverage the strengths of all partners to achieve shared stewardship priorities across management boundaries through cooperative agreements. These agreements include significant work that proactively reduces the threat to forest communities and private property within the wildland-urban interface.

The primary goal of Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) is to increase the pace and scale of restoration at a watershed scale and to strengthen partnerships between state, tribal, county and federal agencies to get more done across jurisdictional boundaries. Good Neighbor Authority was authorized in 2014, the first such partnership on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest was with Idaho Department of Lands in 2016 and IDL continues to be a leader in partnerships with the Forests. Congressional expansion of the authority in 2018 to include tribal and county level governments and the historic level of funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act have enabled this investment of over $30,000,000 in North-Central Idaho landscapes. Forest partners will utilize these funds to accomplish restoration goals via local contracts and projects that support the economy of forest communities.

The diverse group of partners now working under Good Neighbor Authority includes multiple divisions of the Nez Perce Tribe, building on past successful work and the Forests' and Tribe's commitment to co-stewardship. Projects planned by the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries and Resource Management Watershed Division through GNA will restore wetlands, improve stream habitat, expand naturally resilient vegetation, thereby creating aquatic fuel breaks that improve sensitive aquatic resources. The Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resources Program will support appropriate management practices and facilitate upcoming fuels and vegetation projects through the identification of cultural resources in ceded territories on the forest. The Nez Perce Tribe Forestry and Fire Management Department will build upon successful fuels reduction work completed in 2023, performing extensive fuels mitigation and forest restoration work to improve access and support priority projects in the Lower Salmon Landscape.

County and State government agencies are also vital partners for the forests. Idaho County will utilize funding to continue road restoration work that supports fuels reduction and forest restoration projects within the Lower Salmon Landscape. In addition, Idaho County will implement priority fuels reduction projects across the Landscape. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game will continue to implement projects that improve and restore wildlife and fish habitat, as well as continue support in the planning phase of multiple project on the forests. The Idaho Department of Lands, the longest running GNA partner, will continue their commitment to implement projects that improve forest health and reduce fuels, threats to communities and watersheds from catastrophic wildfires. Many of the projects that our partners are implementing also contribute to improved public ingress and egress, a vital aspect of the broader goals for fuels reduction across the Landscape and the forests.

Nez Perce- Clearwater Acting Forest Supervisor, Molly Ryan explained, "Good Neighbor Authority Projects have extended our ability to perform critical work on the 4 million acre Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. They are key to they are key to implementing co-stewardship objectives pertaining to the Wildfire Crisis Strategy Landscape and co-stewardship with the Tribe." Many Good Neighbor Authority programs are ramping up this summer; we will keep the public informed about the progress and planning and how they may temporarily impact forest users.