National Master Stewardship Agreement
This first-of-its-kind agreement paved the way for these partner organizations to work together to address the wildfire crisis in the West and promote healthy forests across the U.S.
In the fall of 2022, the National Wild Turkey Federation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service signed a landmark 20-year national master stewardship agreement.
This first-of-its-kind agreement paved the way for these partner organizations to work together to address the wildfire crisis in the West and promote healthy forests across the U.S. It also includes an initial $50 million commitment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as well as regular agency appropriations and other sources.
“This agreement reflects our strong, long-standing relationship with the National Wild Turkey Federation and its four decades of forest restoration work on national forests and grasslands,” USDA Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said. “Larger wildfires, more frequent natural disasters, and other disturbances that continue to threaten the health of the nation’s forests and grasslands, and the wildlife habitat they provide, means the work we do together is even more vital.”
This agreement is largest in the NWTF’s 50-year history and was the first long-term agreements of its kind between the Forest Service and a conservation partner. The NWTF is the largest and longest-serving nongovernmental partner involved in Forest Service stewardship agreements. A master stewardship agreement will expand funding and partnership opportunities with other federal and state agencies, and Tribes, as well as with the timber industry, municipal water providers, and volunteers.
“Our partnership with the Forest Service is central to our mission,” said Kurt Dyroff, co-chief executive officer of the National Wild Turkey Federation. “Wild turkeys, as well as other wildlife, rely on healthy habitats and healthy forests for their long-term sustainability. Likewise, hunters rely on the same for a quality and successful hunting experience. Our work focuses on the shared values of water, forests/wildlife habitat, recreation, and resilient communities. This partnership enables us to make greater investments at a greater scale to keep forests healthy, water clean and stop critical habitat loss.”
Joining the USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy
Wild turkeys thrive in a contiguous mosaic of habitat; in other words, a mixture of habitat types, together, provide wild turkeys the roosting, brood-rearing and foraging habitat they depend upon. But wild turkeys are not the only species that benefit from a rich mixture of habitat types. Nearly all game species, birds, pollinators and native vegetation thrive in this mixture of habitat. This type of habitat is indicative of both healthy wildlife populations and healthy forests.
When part of Mother Nature’s natural ebb and flow, natural disturbances are exceptional for overall forest health and wildlife, and this is why the NWTF works at a landscape-scale across the U.S. on lands of all ownerships (Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, state-owned, private, etc.) to re-create these disturbances through forest management, which mimics a “good” natural disturbance.
Forest management comes in a variety of practices and techniques and is carried out depending on what a particular forest, grassland or habitat needs. In the case of dense western forests, one of the most effective management practices is forest thinning.
“Forest thinning is not cheap, nor is it an overnight process,” Spezze said. “However, when we collaborate with multiple partners and leverage funds and expertise, the difference we make in forest health, resilience, habitat and safety for nearby communities is exceptional.”
While there are many other forest management practices that benefit wildlife — such as invasive species removal, prescribed fire, erosion control and tree plantings, to name a few — the bulk of what the NWTF will be assisting the Forest Service with, through the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, will be forest thinning projects. Through the newly announced strategy, nearly 30 million acres of land will have hazardous fuels removed through forest thinning practices.
With over 50 active forest stewardship agreements in every Forest Service region in the country, the NWTF is proud to work with the Forest Service enhancing habitat and making America’s forests healthier and safer, and to accelerate the pace and scope of this all-encompassing work.
“Our work benefits more than just turkeys and turkey hunters,” Spezze said. “That’s what makes the wild turkey so great. Our conservation work impacts our critically important Four Shared Values. These values impact everyone’s quality of life. Every American that drinks water, recreates outdoors, enjoys seeing wildlife in a healthy forest or hopes for a safe community to live in. We look forward to continued partnership with the Forest Service and making these values increasingly evident for all Americans. The Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy will accelerate this great work to necessary and unprecedented levels”
The relationship between wild turkeys and catastrophic wildfire prevention is clear. Wild turkeys are an icon of American conservation. Not only have they been brought back from near extinction to flourishing populations across the country, but the work the NWTF and its partners deliver for this beloved bird goes far beyond just wild turkeys. The work that benefits this iconic bird benefits America.
The National Wild Turkey Federation Stewardship Projects Under Agreement for the Wildfire Crisis Strategy
Region 2
San Juan National Forest (Colorado): First Notch Forest Stewardship Project. This project includes 2,993 acres of hazardous fuels work that will reduce fuels, improve wildlife habitat and provide forest products to local markets. Implementation will start in the fall of 2024 or summer of 2025 depending upon project layout being completed.
White River National Forest (Colorado): Cottonwood Forest Stewardship Project. This project will treat 325.5 acres of live and dead timberstands to treat hazardous fuels, improve forest health, enhance wildlife habitat, and provide forest products to the local wood products industry. Some road reconstruction is also included within the project scope. Implementation will begin in the summer of 2024.
Bighorn National Forest (Wyoming): Blondie/Cheap Trick Forest Stewardship Project. This project will treat 536 acres of mature lodgepole pine. This project is one of several being implemented within the Sheridan Municipal Watershed to treat hazardous fuels, enhance wildlife habitat, improve forest health, and provide forest products to the local wood products industry. This project also includes some road reconstruction. Implementation will begin in the summer of 2024.
Region 5
Klamath National Forest (California): Colt Forest Stewardship Project. This project included approximately 6,000 acres of various treatments to advance forest restoration, which were completed in 2023 and 2024. Objectives for the project were to treat hazardous fuels, improve forest health, and enhance wildlife habitat. Treatments included brush mowing and juniper felling, juniper reduction, plantation thinning, mastication, and timber removal. The forested acres within the project area were burned during the Antelope fire in the summer of 2021. To expedite restoration of these forested stands a pilot project using rail transport was implemented due to lack of local markets. The project is within the Klamath River Basin Fireshed and is a high priority to treat hazardous fuels.
Region 6
Fremont-Winema National Forest (Oregon): Hawks Forest Stewardship Project. There is approximately 5000 acres being treated within the scope of this project with commercial timber harvest, meadow restoration, and thinning understory ladder fuels. This project is currently under contract and should be completed in the spring of 2024. Project objectives are to treat hazardous fuels, improve forest health, and enhance wildlife habitat. The project is in the Klamath River Basin Fireshed and is a high priority to treat hazardous fuels.
Wildfire Crisis Strategy FAQs
- What is the Wildfire Crisis Strategy?
In January of 2022, the USDA Forest Service released the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, a ten-year plan with a focus on implementing landscape-level restoration projects where wildfire poses immediate threats to communities and infrastructure. To develop the WCS, areas of high risk were mapped into firesheds. A fireshed is defined as an area that has a high likelihood that a wildfire ignition could expose and damage homes, communities, infrastructure and natural resources. Over 250 high-risk firesheds were identified through the mapping exercise. Recognizing they couldn’t do work at a landscape level everywhere, the Forest Service prioritized work into priority landscapes. The WCS initially prioritized work on 10 landscapes and a year later, an additional 11 landscapes were added.
- How is the WIldfire Crisis Strategy different from other efforts to address wildfire mitigation?
The WCS is different in that it recognizes wildfires as a crisis just like other natural disasters like hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes. WCS efforts are collaborative in nature with the Forest Service partnering with non-governmental organizations, tribes, states, local communities and industry to restore the nation's forests across ownerships. Funding initially came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. Other sources of funding come from the Inflation Reduction Act and appropriated dollars that are budgeted within the annual Forest Service operating budget.
- What are the overarching goals of the Wildfire Crisis Strategy?
The overarching goals of the WCS are to reduce wildfire risk to people, communities, and natural resources while sustaining and restoring healthy, resilient fire-adapted forests. Given these goals, the WCS plans to treat up to 20 million acres on the National Forest System lands in the West, over and above current treatment levels; treat up to an additional 30 million acres on other federal, state, tribal and private lands in the West; and develop a plan for long-term maintenance beyond the initial 10 years of funding.
- How is the work going to be accomplished?
Work will be accomplished by using science-based information to prioritize fuels and forest health treatments. Treatments will be a combination of commercial timber harvesting, thinning and piling of non-commercial sawtimber, mastication or mulching, and prescribed fire. Projects are landscape scale in size, outcome-driven, and community-ready to assist increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration treatments by increasing workforce capacity.
- Why is the NWTF interested in the WCS?
The mission of the NWTF is the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage. Additionally, the NWTF has four shared values — clean water, resilient communities, robust recreational opportunities, and healthy forests and wildlife habitat. The NWTF is interested in the WCS due to diminishing wild turkey populations and a growing concern about catastrophic wildfires and the impact those fires have on wildlife and the habitats in which they live. The NWTF also recognizes the need to increase the pace and scale of conservation efforts. Lastly, the NWTF understands that the Forest Service needs partners such as the NWTF to help accomplish the work.
- Why is the Forest Service relying on partners like the NWTF to implement this strategy?
The Forest Service is partnering with organizations like the NWTF to increase the pace and scale of restoration efforts through keystone agreements. These national level agreements have been created with the NWTF and other organizations to execute priority projects while the Forest Service grows its institutional capacity. The keystone agreements facilitate local agreements at the region level providing a new range of tools for project implementation.
- How long has the NWTF partnered with the Forest Service?
The NWTF has been partnering with the Forest Service for more than 40 years on conservation related projects. The NWTF recognizes large catastrophic wildfires affect our nation’s forested ecosystems. Some of these effects are forests being converted to rangelands, increases in carbon emissions, soil erosion, degraded watersheds impeded by soil erosion and introduction of invasive species.
- What types of projects are being delivered by the NWTF?
Projects being implemented are large in scale and have high conservation value focusing on forest restoration. These projects reduce the effects of wildfires, improve forest health, enhance wildlife habitat and provide a clean water supply to our community watersheds.
For more information about the 20-year master stewardship agreement, contact tspezze@nwtf.net.
For more information about the Wildfire Crisis Strategy work by the NWTF, contact mpitts@nwtf.net.
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