GNA Information and Resources

Photo Credit: Laura Wagner

GNA Information and Resources

Introduction

The Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) is an important partnership tool available to the USDA Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with the intent to increase the pace and scale of forest, rangeland, and watershed restoration across jurisdictional boundaries. Permanently enacted in the 2014 Farm Bill and amended in the 2018 Omnibus Appropriations and the 2018 Farm Bill, GNA enables States, Counties, and Indian Tribes to act as an agent of the federal agencies to complete authorized restoration services on federal and non-federal lands.

This webpage provides a repository of informational and educational resources about GNA for western states forestry agencies, federal agencies, and partners.

GNA Spotlight

Authored by Jason Ko | August 24, 2021

Initiated in 2016, the Acorn and Shaver Springs GNA project was one of the first GNA agreements implemented in California. Since inception, the project has implemented approximately 563 of the planned 1,000 acres of fuels reduction and forest health tree mortality work on the High Sierra District of the Sierra National Forest and adjacent private lands in collaboration with CAL FIRE.

The GNA agreement allowed CAL FIRE crews to perform tree felling, limbing, and mechanical and hand piling work on USDA Forest Service (Forest Service) lands, and was complemented by a Participating Agreement that allowed for Forest Service crews to work on adjacent private/state lands in the same manner. Each agency was able to utilize relative strengths to accomplish the work more efficiently and effectively.

Significantly, parts of this fuel break and forest health initiative was recently used to help protect the community of Big Sandy Rancheria threatened by the 2020 Creek Fire.

For more information about this project, contact Daniel Tune.