Fall Thinning & Forest Resilience on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation

Fall is a busy season for land managers. Across our forest carbon portfolio, partners on the ground are wrapping up certified sustainable timber sales from Maine to the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest while also handling another hard-hitting hurricane season in the Southeast. On the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in South-Central Montana, thinning operations are in full swing.

Thinning operations on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation treat hundreds of acres each year, primarily as a fuel reduction strategy but also to encourage good form and productivity on the Tribe’s commercially managed forest (Fig. 1). Fire is a primary management concern for the Northern Cheyenne. A series of severe wildfires over the past 50 years has reduced their forested area by approximately 50%, and many of the remaining forested acres have critically high fuel loads. Thinning treatments are scheduled after post-wildfire planting (spring to early summer) and around the cone picking season (late summer to early fall), when Tribal crews prioritize collecting Ponderosa seed for future reforestation efforts.  

With a historic return interval of around 17 years, fire is a critical component of the temperate steppe ecosystem on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. The historical fire regime produced cool surface fires that cleaned up the forest floor and pruned Ponderosa pine, which discouraged crown fires and resulted in open park-like stands. Today, fuel treatments aim to restore fuel conditions that promote low to mid-severity fires. The goal is to achieve a resilient forest condition with a lower risk of catastrophic stand-replacing fires, thereby promoting long-term carbon sequestration. 

Thinning and post-wildfire reforestation work on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation has historically been funded through the Bureau of Indian Affairs via a 638 contract and cooperative agreement with Tribal Forestry, and timber sale receipts. By entering into forest carbon agreements, the Tribe commits to monitor the carbon impacts of their forest management and realize positive climate outcomes. Reforestation funding and credit sales from the carbon agreement also provide an alternate revenue stream that builds upon the Tribe’s successful model to scale up this work. 

Learn more about our work with the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and how you can partner with The Climate Trust to advance forest management and drive positive climate impact. 

Figure 1. Excerpts from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Forestry Thinner’s Handbook. The handbook was originally developed in 1987 by Terry Spang, Sr., the Northern Cheyenne Tribe’s first Tribal Forest Manager. The original handbook was shared and used by other new Tribal Forestry departments in the region, and an updated version is used by Mr. Spang’s forestry department today. Reproduced with permission.