Timber Sales Operations Group (TSOG)

The Division of Forestry (DOF) accomplishes many critical tasks with the help of the Timber Sales Operations Group (TSOG) working team. Along with DOF central office staff, TSOG’s members are comprised of volunteer participants from regional and agency offices; Tribal employees have also participated and contributed to projects in the past. The group may number 7–10 members at any given time.

TSOG meets regularly and works on policy development. It is currently working on developing a “Harvest of Forest Products Handbook” to replace the current 53 IAM 3-H Timber Sales Handbook and 53 IAM 4-H Permit Sales Handbook.

In the past year, TSOG also drafted the National Policy Memoranda for Direct Payment of Revenue from the Sale of Forest Products to Tribally administered accounts; the Policy on Tribal Collection and Retention of Forest Management Deductions; and a Carbon Agreements policy.

In addition, TSOG functions as the Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS) user group. This group schedules and provides subject matter experts for TAAMS Forestry training and develops proposals for enhancements to the TAAMS Forestry Module.

Over the past year, it has developed 11 TAAMS forestry change requests that have been approved by the TAAMS Change Management Board or are in varying stages of development. These improvements will help streamline the TAAMS processes and include major new functionality such as the “Timber Sale Money Books” enhancement, which will enable an interactive ledger of all timber scale and financial transactions. Past projects have included updates to the Forestry Categorical Exclusions and major revisions to all forest product sale document specifications and forms.