The Departments of Interior, Commerce, and Agriculture announced steps to increase Tribal participation in the management and stewardship of federal lands and waters. These included Interior’s first-ever annual report on Tribal co-stewardship; a report on existing legal authorities that can support Tribal stewardship and co-stewardship; and the launch of two new intra-Departmental bodies: the Committee on Collaborative and Cooperative Stewardship, representing the land management bureaus, and the Office of the Solicitor Working Group on Collaborative Stewardship for Associate, Regional, and Field Solicitors to coordinate on co-stewardship-related legal issues. Finally, the Bureau of Indian Affairs also released new guidance on supporting co-stewardship agreements.
Sep. 13, 2022, DOI released new guidance from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on steps each bureau will take to facilitate and support agreements with Tribes to promote co-stewardship of federal lands and waters. The BLM memo requires the bureau’s 12 state directors to, within six months, create “state-specific plans for outreach” to identify co-stewardship opportunities.