Washington Office | July 2022

Forest Service

Equity Action Plan

Mission Area: Natural Resources and Environment 

Equity Action Plan Leads: 

Mary Pletcher Rice, Chief Executive, Work Environment and Performance Office 

Anzanette Randall, Director, Office of Civil Rights

Submitted: February 10, 2022 

Updated: July 2022 
Internal Copy—Not Intended for External Distribution 1 

Executive Summary 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Under Secretary for Natural Resources and 

Environment (NRE), Forest Service Equity Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as “Forest 

Service Equity Action Plan”) represents a broad set of high-leverage actions with potential for 

creating high impact and enduring systemic change that benefit employees, Tribes, partners, and 

the public. Delivering the Forest Service’s mission in a purposefully equitable manner requires 

changing traditional perspectives, processes, actions, and performance measures to ensure the 

full suite of benefits, outcomes, and opportunities to participate are made available to all, 

especially in rural and urban places that have been marginalized or overlooked. 

Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities 

Through the Federal Government, requires the head of each agency to prepare a plan for 

addressing any barriers to full and equal participation in programs, services, procurement, 

contracting, and other funding opportunities. In this plan, the Forest Service commits to 

assessing barriers and identifying equity outcomes for underserved communities by focusing on 

the following 10 actions: increasing Tribal trust responsibilities and participation in Forest 

Service activities that honor Tribal rights and interests; increasing Tribal and stakeholder 

engagement and relationship building and equity-centered communications; achieving a 

representative and inclusive workforce; embedding equity in employee onboarding processes; 

providing economic opportunities through contracting and procurement; providing economic 

opportunities through grants and agreements; reducing wildfire risk to Tribes and underserved 

communities; expanding cooperative and state forestry assistance programs to underserved 

communities; expanding urban forestry benefits to underserved communities; and increasing 

access to recreation and outdoor experiences for underserved communities. 

Information management, data needs assessment, performance management, monitoring, and 

mapping actions are also in development, along with action items for institutionalizing internal 

learning opportunities. The Forest Service performs some of its best work with and through 

others. The foundation for the agency’s success depends on having a high-performing, 

representative, and service-focused workforce. The agency’s success in equitable mission 

delivery depends on employees who mirror the people they serve, build community, and share 

stewardship with all citizens.
Internal Copy—Not Intended for External Distribution 2 

Forest Service Equity Actions 

Community Service to All

1. Position Agency and Tribes for Success by Expanding Tribal Costewardship—

Engage Tribes and line officers, identify barriers and opportunities, and conduct other 

activities focused on achieving success in a learning environment, with an initial focus on 

costewardship and Forest Service Tribal authorities such as the Tribal Forest Protection 

Act and others. 

2. Enhance Engagement and Partnerships with Tribes and Underserved Communities 

through Culturally Relevant Strategies—Center the voices, diverse needs, and unique 

perspectives of Tribes and underserved community stakeholders and create shared 

leadership in achieving enduring change for equitable mission delivery.

3. Achieve a Representative, Inclusive, and Thriving Forest Service Workforce—

Integrate and prioritize hiring authorities under the Resource Assistant, Job Corps, Public 

Land Corps, and Tribal Youth Conservation Programs, which will significantly increase 

successful placements of underrepresented employees to meet near- and long-term hiring 

needs. 

4. Institutionalize the Onboarding Experience for New Employees—Implement an 

onboarding program that celebrates diversity, meets inclusion objectives for a growing 

workforce and the changing work environment, and orients new employees to Forest 

Service values around equitable mission delivery and Tribal trust responsibilities. 

Economic Prosperity

5. Increase Equity in Opportunities for Small and Disadvantaged Businesses—Initiate 

a pilot program to provide further support to small and disadvantaged businesses by 

increasing capacity in procurement zones, building deeper relationships with Tribes and

local small and disadvantaged businesses, and demonstrating a strong commitment to 

recurring national and local outreach event efforts. 

6. Increase Equity in Agreements—Expand the pool of partners to include more Tribes 

and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) organizations; develop new 

outreach strategies; launch a working group to address issues that affect implementation 

and obstacles to establishing partnerships; promote Tribal relations and reduce barriers to 

Tribal participation; and establish an access storefront to reduce barriers to access by 

DEIA organizations. 

Health and Resiliency

7. Reduce Wildfire Risk to Tribal, Underserved, and Socially Vulnerable

Communities—Address impacts to Tribal, underserved, and socially vulnerable 

communities in relative proximity to National Forest System lands by integrating data, 

information, and maps into planning and decision-making processes and tools. This 

action will ensure demographic variables are understood, considered, and addressed 

during tradeoff analysis and decision-making. Integrate processes into the Wildfire Crisis 

Strategy effort to reduce the severity and frequency of wildland fires; protect lives, 
Internal Copy—Not Intended for External Distribution 3 

homes, and communities; achieve equity outcomes; and improve the health and resilience 

of our Nation’s forests. 

8. Expand Cooperative Forestry Benefits to Underserved Communities—Use the

Landscape Scale Restoration Program to integrate equity into proposal evaluation and

guidance for competitive processes by prioritizing discretionary points for underserved

communities and enhancing outreach to newly eligible Tribal and other applicants to

attract proposals from rural communities.

9. Expand Urban Forestry Benefits to Underserved Communities—Issue requests for

proposals while highlighting equity considerations; develop explicit criteria for requests

for proposals and evaluation guidance to prioritize underserved communities; enhance

outreach to prospective applicants to attract proposals from Tribes and high-need urban

communities; and work toward funding 40 percent of projects in underserved

communities and with Tribes.

10. Promote Access to Recreation and Outdoor Experiences within Communities of

Color and Socially Vulnerable Populations—Promote research to understand who

visitors are; how they recreate; who is not visiting; barriers to accessing recreation

opportunities; economic, community, and personal benefits of recreation opportunities;

and preferences regarding and satisfaction with recreation opportunities. Develop

research-based strategies to increase visitation by communities of color. Promote use of

the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act in support of Tribal

culture and tourism enterprise.