§3114 Postgraduation Recruitment, Education and Training Programs

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior must set up a program to hire Indian and Alaska Native professional foresters and forestry technicians who have finished postsecondary or graduate school. They can work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs or, if a tribe agrees, in tribal forestry programs. In return, the Secretary will take over the employee’s unpaid student loans. How long the person must work depends on how much loan debt is paid. The Secretary must also run a cooperative internship and training program for Federal, Indian, and Alaska Native forestry staff. Inside the Interior Department, it lets BIA, Alaska Native, and tribal employees intern in other Interior agency forestry programs and lets other Interior forestry staff intern in BIA or, with tribal consent, tribal programs. For agencies outside Interior, interagency agreements can place staff who are above their sixth year of Federal service into BIA or tribal internships. The original agency keeps paying salary and benefits for Federal employees. The host agency pays salary and benefits for Indian and Alaska Native employees. Interns get a bonus at the end. The BIA Division of Forestry must also run ongoing education on tribal–Federal relations, technical forestry skills, and forest-based business and marketing.