KAMIAH – 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 forest restoration projects. These partnerships leverage the strengths of all partners to achieve shared stewardship priorities across administrative boundaries through cooperative agreements. These agreements include important actions that proactively reduce threats to forest communities and private property at the wilderness-urban interface.
The primary goal of the Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) is to increase the pace and scale of watershed restoration and strengthen partnerships among state, tribal, county, and federal agencies to accomplish more across jurisdictional lines. The Good Neighbor Authority was authorized in 2014, the first such partnership in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest was formed with the Idaho Department of Lands in 2016, and the IDL continues to lead forest partnerships. Congress’s expansion of the authority in 2018 to include tribal and county governments and historic levels of funding from the bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act have enabled this investment of over $30,000,000 in north central Idaho’s landscapes. The forest partners will use these funds to achieve restoration goals through local contracts and projects that support forest community economies.
The diverse group of partners now working under the Good Neighbor Authority includes multiple divisions of the Nez Perce Tribe and builds on previous successful work and the forests and tribe’s commitment to shared stewardship. Projects planned by the Watershed Division of the Nez Perce Tribal Department of Fisheries and Resource Management through the GNA will restore wetlands, improve stream habitat, expand naturally resilient vegetation, creating aquatic firebreaks that enhance sensitive aquatic resources. The Nez Perce Tribal Cultural Resources Program will support appropriate management practices and facilitate upcoming fuel and vegetation projects by identifying cultural resources in ceded areas of the forest. The Nez Perce Tribal Forestry and Fire Protection Division will build on the successful fuels reduction work completed in 2023 and conduct extensive fuels reduction and forest restoration work to improve access and support priority projects in the Lower Salmon Landscape.
County and state agencies are also important partners for the forests. Idaho County will use the funds to continue road rehabilitation work that supports fuel reduction and forest restoration projects in the Lower Salmon Landscape. In addition, Idaho County will implement priority fuel 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 and will continue to support the planning phase of several projects in the forests. The Idaho Department of Lands, the GNA’s oldest partner, will remain committed to implementing projects that improve forest health and reduce fuels that pose threats to communities and watersheds from catastrophic wildfires. Many of the projects our partners are implementing also contribute to improved public access and egress, an important aspect of the broader fuel reduction goals across the landscape and forests.
Molly Ryan, Nez Perce-Clearwater Deputy Forest Supervisor, stated, “The Good Neighbor Authority projects have expanded our ability to perform important work on the 4 million acres of Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. They are key to achieving the goals of co-management within the wildfire mitigation strategy landscape and co-management with the Tribe.” Many Good Neighbor Authority programs will ramp up this summer. We will update the public on progress and planning and how they may temporarily impact forest users.
