Statewide Strategy for Restoring Arizona’s Forests (Back to Forests Program Index)

Since 2003, the Grand Canyon Trust has been working closely with a diverse group of colleagues within the Arizona Forest Health Advisory Council to provide guidance on the state’s most pressing forest health issues.  Specifically, the governor has requested that the Council:

1. Develop guiding principles for the design and implementation of restoration-based fire fuel reduction and forest health restoration projects based on the best-available science
2. Monitor and evaluate results of existing restoration projects in Arizona
3. Identify new strategies and opportunities for demonstrating restoration-based fuel reduction and other forest health restoration techniques
4. Identify the resources to fund demonstration projects; and
5. Evaluate existing and potential sustainable economic uses for small diameter trees that are compatible with long-term protection of forest health and economic development goals.

In 2003 and 2004, the Council developed the Guiding Principles for Forest Ecosystem Restoration and Community Protection, (63KB PDF)* provided guidance to Governor Napolitano on key forest restoration and community protection issues, and began to develop an impressive “zone of agreement” existing between diverse stakeholders across the state.  The Councils have been critically important in allowing forest restoration discussions to move from traditional controversy and acrimony, to a much more productive and promising place.

In 2004, and at the bequest of Governor Napolitano, the Advisory and Oversight Councils began to develop a long-term forest restoration strategy that would begin to “get ahead of the curve” on forest restoration and community protection issues by developing a long-term, viable strategy for restoring Arizona’s forests, protecting its communities, and revitalizing its restoration-based economies.

During late 2004 and 2005, a diverse set of stakeholders have been working steadily to develop the Statewide Strategy for Restoring Arizona’s Forests.  The Strategy (to be completed in draft from in December of 2006) will:

1. Help everyone (citizens, legislators and land managers) understand how to develop high-impact, comprehensive actions to restore forests
2. Inform, support and promote community wildfire protection plans (CWPP)
3. Inform and guide Forest Plan revisions for Arizona’s six National Forests
4. Help the private, business sector determine the amount of wood that will be available for utilization, thereby providing the information required to attract private investment
5. Provide a cross-jurisdictional and restoration-based context for fire management planning
6. Inform the Arizona Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy
7. Provide a broad context for local/regional and stakeholder collaborative efforts to restore forests
8. Serve as the primary vehicle for implementing the Western Governors’ Association Ten Year Strategy in Arizona.

Products from the strategy will include:

1. A Spatial Data Database
   • Existing base datasets for each identified landscape, e.g. infrastructure, land use, etc.
   • Foundational datasets for each identified landscape, e.g. forest structure and composition
   • Other available datasets for each identified landscape, e.g. ForestERA, WALTER
   • Multi-scale organization, e.g. local to landscape to state level.
     
     
2. A Demonstration of Key Restoration Strategies for identified landscapes
   • Map-intensive descriptions of strategies
   • Underlying assumptions and datasets for strategies
   • Analytical methodologies used in developing strategies
     
     
3. A Stakeholder Survey that will identify:
   • Forest restoration/community protection/economic revitalization opportunities and obstacles throughout the state.
   • Stakeholder needs in planning and implementing science-based, collaboratively developed initiatives.
     
     
4. A Scorecard that will assess each of Arizona’s forested landscapes
   • Describe current conditions
   • Evaluate current management trends
   • Recommend future management actions
     
     
5. An Evaluation of collaborative approaches to forest management
   • Identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
     
     
6. A Gap Analysis
   • Identify data and planning needs across the state
   • Identify important issues that have not been addressed in planning efforts
     

We strongly feel that this initiative holds tremendous promise for restoring Arizona’s forests ambitiously, efficiently, and in an environmentally appropriate fashion.

Please feel free to contact: Ethan Aumack if you have any questions about this initiative.

(Back to Forests Program Index)

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