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Subcommittee hears bill to transfer BLM and tribal fee land to Shingle Springs Band for housing, wildfire reduction
Summary
H.R.2302 would place roughly 85.3 acres of BLM land and about 188.84 acres of fee land into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to address housing shortages and wildfire risk, witnesses said at the hearing.
Members of the House Natural Resources subcommittee heard testimony on H.R.2302, which would convey approximately 85.3 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and 188.84 acres of fee land into trust for the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians to support housing and wildfire hazard reduction.
"The trust transfer contemplated by H.R.2302 will not eliminate our housing shortage, but it will make a serious dent in it," Shingle Springs Band Chairwoman Regina Cuellar said. She told the subcommittee the tribe purchased the Indian Creek Ranch property, which was originally approved for 75 residential lots in 2009 but remained undeveloped after the 2008 real estate crash.
Cuellar said the property sits about three miles from the reservation and would give tribal members proximity to services and infrastructure. She and other witnesses also described active vegetation management already underway on adjacent properties to reduce wildfire hazards; testimony noted fires such as the Caldor and Kings fires as local examples of rising wildfire risk.
Department witnesses supported the transfer’s goals but said agencies would work with the sponsor and committee on technical details such as acreage verification and exclusions for existing rights and special‑use permits. John Crockett, deputy chief for State, Private and Tribal Forestry at the U.S. Forest Service, stated the bill "directs the secretary of agriculture to transfer certain lands ... to the Department of Interior to take them into trust for the benefit of the Quinault Indian Nation and the Pitt River tribe respectively" when commenting on related transfers; he told the subcommittee the Forest Service is committed to interagency coordination where interests overlap.
Cuellar said El Dorado County supports the transfer and that the measure could streamline the fee‑to‑trust timeline compared with the BIA’s existing backlog. Committee members asked for written follow-up and technical corrections; no committee vote was recorded during the hearing.
