Washington, D.C. – Senate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici joined Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Dianne Feinstein today in introducing a bipartisan bill that gives Native American tribes a chance to protect their reservation lands from catastrophic fire by allowing the tribes to enter into stewardship contracts with the federal government to thin federal lands adjacent to tribal lands. Under this legislation, the federal government will pay the tribes for these services either in cash or by allowing them to keep the timber they thinned from the federal lands. In other circumstances, the Forest Service would sell the timber and return the revenues to the treasury. Chairman Domenici’s statement: “I am pleased to be working with Senators Campbell and Feinstein on this critical legislation that gives Native American tribes a better chance to defend themselves and their lands from catastrophic fires. “Like all Americans, many Native American tribes are concerned about the risk of catastrophic forest fires spreading from nearby federal lands onto their own lands. Last summer, at least 18 reservations were invaded by fire from adjacent federal public forest lands. This bill empowers tribes to prevent that tragedy from recurring. Nearly 100 Native American tribes support this legislation, including tribes from my home state of New Mexico.” The bill does the following: Sets up a process for the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management to enter into Stewardship contracts with the tribes for fuel reduction purposes. If a tribe requests a stewardship project on federal lands near its reservation, the agencies are encouraged to respond within specific time-frames and suggest remedies for any agency concerns with the tribe’s proposal. In determining the recipients of the contracts, the agencies are encouraged to consider such factors as tribal treaty rights or cultural and historical affiliation to the land involved. This bill was included in the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. It replicates a provision of HR 1907 (the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003) that was dropped in conference.