Mapping conceptions of space in National Forest planning

Keywords: Tribes, forest service, environmental planning, consultation, mapping
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper examines spatial conceptions of the Hells Canyon area within the ancestral homelands of the Nez Perce Tribe using document analysis, interviews, and spatial data exploration. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) manages large areas of Indigenous homelands often lying within and adjacent to Tribal reservations. For over twenty years, the USFS has had some form of Tribal consultation policy when undertaking actions or decisions affecting Tribes (EO 13175). However, federal consultation processes often fail to provide outcomes that are acceptable to Tribes (Dongoske et al., 2015, Routel and Holth, 2013). When Tribal perspectives and expertise are evaluated solely within non-Indigenous frameworks, the results are limiting and unsatisfactory (McGregor, 2002) and such efforts serve colonial power production (Coulthard, 2014). Spatial ontologies are at the heart of environmental planning and decision-making. Planning objectives and implementation are tied to conceptions of (dis)connectivity, boundaries, and scope of impact across space. Maps are tangible artefacts of spatio-alities widely used in National Forest planning. Importantly, “As objects, maps not only reflect (and reinforce) particular versions of reality, they simultaneously create them – through the process of mapping certain spatial knowledge and not others, and then managing the space (including resources and people) accordingly (Goldman, 2021, p. 197). Drawing from scholarship in Indigenous mapping and critical cartography, this research asks: 1) what are the epistemological and ontological frameworks depicted and enforced in USFS maps and spatial artefacts (e.g., visitor signs) and 2) what are mapping approaches that could facilitate meaningful collaboration between Tribes and the USFS?