Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership (Back to Forests Program Index)

Restoring ponderosa forests is a multi-faceted endeavor. To be successful, restoration must be ecologically, economically, and socially viable. At the broadest level, restoration involves restoring fire to wildland forests in a way that is safe, socially acceptable, and protective of wildlife and native biological diversity. This involves an integrated combination of science-informed social agreement, community fire preparedness, land use and fire management planning, and strategic placement of restoration treatments to facilitate fire management and wildlife conservation goals. Creating a safe landscape context for fire through community preparedness, wildland urban interface treatments, and other strategically placed restoration treatments is a critical prerequisite to landscape-scale restoration. The sooner we can safely manage wildland fires, the sooner we can safely restore wildland forests with fire.

Since 1997 Grand Canyon Trust has been working at the community level to collaboratively plan and implement restoration-based fuels reduction treatments in Flagstaff’s Wildland Urban Interface. These efforts included founding the Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership (GFFP), and through that effort working on all facets of restoration—from project planning, implementation and monitoring, to community volunteerism and the development of businesses that utilize small-diameter trees cut during restoration thinning.

Through the GFFP we seek to bring the best available information to bear in collaborative processes and public discourse to facilitate ecologically sound, cautious, and science-informed restoration decision-making.