Methods and systems are described to store state used to forward multicast traffic. The system includes a receiving module to receive request to add a first node to a membership tree. The membership tree includes a first plurality of nodes associated with a multicast group. The system further includes a processing module to identify a second node in the first plurality of nodes and to communicate a node identifier that identifies the first node over a network to the second node. The node identifier is to be stored at the second node to add the first node to the membership tree. The node identifier is further to be stored in the membership tree exclusively at the second node to enable the second node to forward the multicast traffic to the first node.