- United States Forest Service
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Lake County-based Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance harvests Christmas trees for Congress
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — In early November, a unique crew of U.S. Forest Service-certified sawyers from the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, or TERA, helped harvest more than 20 indoor-sized Christmas trees to decorate federal offices throughout the U.S. Capitol, as part of the Forest Service’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree initiative.
The Christmas tree initiative is not just about spreading holiday cheer. Removing smaller, densely packed trees also helps make national forests more fire resilient.
Small trees are ignitable fuels, according to Julia Everta, Six Rivers National Forest land and minerals specialist who oversaw the companion Christmas tree harvest.
“Gathering indoor Christmas trees thins small, crowded trees and reduces nutrient and water competition for remaining trees to grow,” Everta said.
Everta and her team began planning for the companion tree harvest on Six Rivers National Forest in February 2021.
There was a coordinated effort involving Forest Service staff and volunteers to scout the best trees with symmetrical limbs, dense crowns and straight trunks.
Behind the scenes, another Forest Service partner worked to get TERA involved in the Christmas tree harvest.
After learning the Forest Service needed certified sawyers to fell the Christmas trees, Judy deFreitas, community relations principal at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, connected Everta with TERA and helped PG&E sponsor TERA’s work on the Christmas tree initiative.
By the time the TERA crew arrived in November, the best red and white firs on the Mad River District were flagged for cutting, all at about 5,000 feet elevation or higher.
The biggest challenges during the harvest were weather and potential safety concerns, according to TERA crew member Lance McCloud of Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians of California.
“Weather kept changing every half hour. It started snowing, then hailing, then raining,” said McCloud.
Even with the unpredictable weather, the three-person crew got the job done, felling more than 20 trees in a single day.
For Everta, TERA’s safety expertise and problem-solving skills were essential.
In March 2021, the TERA crew had been trained in the Forest Service’s safety culture and became certified to operate chainsaws on public lands by Mendocino National Forest’s Elk Mountain Hotshot Crew.
“Everyone on the team was engaged in making it a success,” said Everta. “Some of the trees were spread out, and we had to problem-solve to cut, carry and bail them in the truck.”
Once the trees were harvested, they were wrapped and secured for the 3,500-mile journey to Washington, D.C. The trees are now decorated and on display throughout Congress and federal offices.
Today, TERA works as a full-time, multi-tribal hand crew throughout Lake County and has agreements with the Mendocino National Forest to complete fuels reduction projects and share traditional ecological knowledge with the Forest Service.
Forest Service eager to learn and apply tribal approach to land management
The companion Christmas tree harvest is one illustration of the deliberate efforts being made to incorporate the tribal workforce and indigenous expertise on public lands.
In November, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior issued a policy to facilitate agreements with tribes to improve collaboration and co-stewardship.
Mendocino National Forest, which began working nearly three years ago alongside the Robinson Rancheria Pomo and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians in partnership with TERA, is poised to take action that aligns with the new policy.
An integral part of the collaboration with TERA is the exchange of modern and traditional knowledge and practices, according to Hinda Darner, fuels specialist for the Upper Lake Ranger District.
“We are working with them in a way that we can learn from them also,” said Darner. “When Native Americans managed the landscape, it was much more resilient to wildfire.”
“We’ve heard from our tribal partners how incredibly impactful it has been for them to be working on their ancestral lands again,” said Mendocino District Ranger Frank Aebly.
TERA Program Director Lindsay Dailey is also inspired by the way TERA approaches land management, through its promotion of “good fire” or prescribed fire and cultural burning.
“We all have something to learn from that whether we’re native or not,” said Dailey. “This partnership with the Mendocino National Forest is a great model for how people and land managers everywhere need to be collaborating with tribes, listening, supporting and learning from them.”