The Yakama Nation is seeking $65.5 million in damages from the Klickitat Public Utility District for a 2013 wildfire that burned almost 20,000 acres of tribal timber land near Satus Pass.
The state blames the utility for the fire, saying its power lines ignited a tree. But the PUD disputes that conclusion and is asking a federal court to dismiss the claim, which was filed on behalf of the tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
While the case represents one of the largest, if not the largest, damages sought from wildfire on Indian forest land, litigation over fire responsibility and restitution is not uncommon and the sums are growing as wildfire costs rise across the West.
“This fire caused significant economic loss to the tribe, job loss, and cultural losses to the land and hurts the long-term management of our forests,” said Phil Rigdon, natural resources director for the Yakama Nation. “The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a trust responsibility to recover the damages.”
That responsibility is laid out in the National Indian Forest Resource Management Act, which requires the agency to seek damages from anyone who trespasses on tribal forest land and damages the resource.
But in its complaint to the court, the utility argues that the Bureau of Indian Affairs’s claim is invalid because there’s no proof it “trespassed” on tribal land.
The utility’s general manager, Jim Smith, did not return multiple requests for comment.
While the law is designed to protect tribal timber from theft, the definition of trespass “can include any damage to forest resources on Indian forest land resulting from activities under contracts or permits or from fire.”
Moreover, the act sets the civil penalty for trespass at three times the value of the lost timber.