House Natural Resources subcommittee weighs Forest Act to expand tribal role in forest restoration

The Subcommittee on Federal Lands of the House Committee on Natural Resources on Wednesday considered a discussion draft of the Fostering Opportunities to Restore Ecosystems through Sound Tribal Stewardship Act, or the Forest Act, a bill offered by Representative Hurd intended to expand tribal participation in cross-boundary forest management.

The chair of the subcommittee said the Forest Act “harnesses the profound knowledge and experience of tribes to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and make forests more resilient to drought, insects, and disease,” and described provisions to authorize tribal sawmill demonstration projects, extend stewardship contracts to 20 years and prioritize retention and expansion of sawmill infrastructure under stewardship contracting authorities.

The measure, presented as a discussion draft rather than a scored bill, is intended to promote active forest management techniques such as mechanical thinning and prescribed burning, the chair said, citing a federal fire-risk trend: “Catastrophic wildfires have burned an average of 7,000,000 acres annually.” The chair added that since February more than “1,500 sawmills have closed or drastically curtailed their operations,” and said the Forest Act would direct the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to establish tribal sawmill demonstration projects aimed at processing salvage timber and reducing hazardous fuels in fire-prone areas.

Representative Neguse, the subcommittee’s ranking member, used his opening statement to highlight concerns about legislative process related to unrelated land-sale provisions that were added late to recent committee action. Neguse said, “This is the first time that we've gathered since the markup… What I'd like to address for the moment was the midnight land sale that 2 of my colleagues, on the other side of the aisle successfully initiated during the course of that markup,” and urged Republican members to remove that provision from a reconciliation vehicle so the subcommittee can return to “regular order.”

Members and the chair framed the Forest Act as building on existing authorities and programs, including Good Neighbor Authority and stewardship contracting, and noted past fixes that let tribes retain receipts from timber sales. The chair referenced a model demonstration with the Washoe tribe in California that followed the Calder fire as an example of how tribal sawmill demonstrations could operate.

Witness testimony and further debate were expected to probe details such as how the 20-year stewardship contracts would be implemented, the anticipated funding and market for low-value materials, and how the projects would interface with existing state and private sawmill infrastructure. The hearing record was opened for additional members’ written statements under committee rules.

No formal votes or committee-level actions on the discussion draft were taken during the opening statements captured in the transcript. The hearing continued to receive testimony and questions that will inform any future legislative text and potential markups.

The subcommittee’s consideration comes amid broader, contentious committee activity: ranking members referenced a prior full-committee markup that extended more than 13 hours and included late additions that some members say lacked agency review or committee hearings. The Forest Act discussion is scheduled to continue in that context, with members from both parties expressing interest in tribal co-management approaches while also raising procedural and substantive concerns about other pending land proposals.