The U.S. Forest Service and South Dakota have formalized a five-year shared stewardship agreement designed to coordinate management activities across national forest and adjacent land in the state, federal officials announced Friday.
What the Agreement Covers
The pact, signed between the Forest Service and South Dakota’s Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, opens the door for collaborative projects that could include timber harvesting, prescribed fire operations, forest thinning, grazing, and habitat and watershed restoration work.
The agreement does not directly authorize any individual project. Each specific undertaking involving funding, services, or property would require its own separate approval process. After the initial five-year term, the agreement can be extended in three-year increments.
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the intent is to bring state and federal priorities into closer alignment, particularly around wildfire risk reduction and managing insect and disease outbreaks. “With this agreement, we are aligning federal and state priorities to accelerate active management in high risk areas,” Schultz said in a press release.
Gov. Larry Rhoden said the arrangement strengthens the state’s working relationship with the Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk, improve rangeland conditions, and support the forest products industry.
Context and Concerns
The South Dakota agreement mirrors similar arrangements reached with other states and follows a Trump administration executive order calling for expanded domestic timber production. The administration has pursued a broad push toward more aggressive land management on federal holdings.
Not everyone views the agreement as straightforwardly cooperative. Dave Mertz, a retired natural resource officer with the Black Hills National Forest, said he suspects the underlying purpose is to sustain or increase timber output by drawing more on state resources. The Trump administration eliminated thousands of Forest Service positions through the Department of Government Efficiency last year, though a series of lawsuits led to some workers being rehired.
“I’m suspicious that the primary reason for it is to help the Forest Service get more trees cut,” Mertz said in public remarks reported by a state news outlet.
By the Numbers
Timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest have been a point of contention for years. Sales volume declined from 2021 to 2024 before ticking upward last year. Roughly 8.4 million cubic feet of timber were sold in the forest in the most recent year — significantly below the historic peak of 25.3 million cubic feet recorded in 2008.
Environmental and conservation organizations have argued that years of mountain pine beetle damage and large wildfires have drawn down the forest’s timber base to a point that warrants reduced harvesting. Timber industry representatives have countered that the forest can support a higher level of logging without long-term harm.
Zoom Out
Shared stewardship agreements between the Forest Service and individual states have become a more common tool for coordinating land management across federal and state jurisdictions. The approach allows states to take on a larger operational role, particularly as federal agency staffing levels fluctuate. South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest, covering roughly 1.2 million acres, has long been at the center of debates over sustainable logging, wildfire prevention, and ecosystem health in the Northern Plains region.
South Dakota has also seen shifts in its wildlife management landscape in recent years. Elk populations have expanded into eastern parts of the state, prompting officials to respond with policy adjustments of their own.
What’s Next
With the framework agreement in place, the state and federal agencies are expected to begin identifying specific projects for development under the pact. Each project will require its own agreement before any ground-level work can proceed. The five-year term provides a planning window for officials to prioritize areas with elevated wildfire risk or resource management needs, with the option to extend the arrangement as conditions and priorities evolve.