Tribal forests are healthier and more productive than ever, with sustainable management practices increasing timber yields and maintaining a rich biodiversity for the long term. Tribal forests are even advancing innovative adaptations to climate change that can find broad application on federal forestlands and private forests alike.

In Washington, the Quinault reservation produces a sustainable flow of timber in a region dominated by federal forests from which little timber flows, as do the Yakama and Colville reservations on the east side of the Cascade Mountains.

The Yakama operate the only processing facility in their area and are rapidly thinning their forests to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic fire, improve habitat and increase timber quality. The Colville reservation is practicing innovative silviculture, again to provide timber in a region of timber scarcity due to the low harvest on federal land.

Because tribes live with consequences of all their management decisions, in contrast with the selectivity of litigious groups pressuring the U.S. National Forests, they pursue thoughtful and balanced management geared to the far future. Indians must live directly with the consequences of their actions. Indian forests are a national model of sustainable-forest management for federal and private forests alike.