When it comes to forest restoration on the Colorado Plateau, we think big. In 2009, the Trust helped launch the largest forest restoration project in the country. The Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) covers a 2.4 million-acre swath of ponderosa pine forest along Arizona’s Mogollon Rim, stretching from the Grand Canyon to New Mexico.
We’re working with the Forest Service, contractors, and dozens of partners to reduce the risk of severe wildfire, improve the health of our springs and streams, protect old growth and wildlife habitat, and make our forests more resilient to climate change.
Large-scale restoration involves a lot of people, a lot of planning, and a lot of coordination. Day-to-day, we spend a lot of time in meetings, discussing past restoration activities and planning future thinning and prescribed burns.
In places where restoration is underway, we visit tracts to monitor the size and spacing of trees left behind. We also look at untreated stands to determine which trees should be cut. Our field trips help us track progress and tweak plans.
Forest restoration and the health of our water sources go hand-in-hand. We’re collecting baseline data on springs and streams so that over time, we can track the impacts of forest restoration on our water. More on our projects ›
Fire used to be frequent in the Southwest’s ponderosa pine forests, clearing out understories of saplings and maintaining open stands of large, well-spaced trees. According to lore, ranchers could drive wagons through the “park-like” woodlands. But decades of fire suppression allowed spindly trunks to crowd our national forests, and the unnaturally dense conditions now fuel severe wildfires, putting communities and wildlife at risk.
The trees are large and noble in aspect and stand widely apart, except in the highest part of the plateau where spruces dominate. Instead of dense thickets where we are shut in by impenetrable foliage, we can look far beyond and see the tree trunks vanishing away like an infinite colonnade. The grounds unobstructed and inviting. There is a constant succession of parks and glades, dream avenues of grass and flowers winding between sylvan walls, or spreading out in broad open meadows. From June until September, there is a display of wildflowers which is quite beyond description.
— Clarence Dutton, geologist for the United States Geological Survey
Over the next 20 years, 4FRI seeks to accelerate forest restoration across the Mogollon Rim to:
On the east side of the Mogollon Rim, treatments are hitting the ground at an encouraging pace. Local industry has thinned over 60,000 acres in that area since 2012, complemented by prescribed and managed fire across nearly 200,000 additional acres. Work on the west side is much slower, but the 4FRI group is trying to find ways to accelerate restoration with the goal of treating a total of 50,000 acres per year. Meanwhile, we are in the planning phase for the Rim Country Project, which will restore an additional 1.24 million acres of forest lands.
Restoring ponderosa pine forests in northern Arizona is a massive undertaking — one that is costly and time-intensive. To accomplish restoration across such a vast landscape, we're working with the wood products industry to offset costs and accelerate restoration while also supporting local economies. Restoration is the right thing to do for Arizona's ponderosa pine forests, but it isn't risk-free. Tree thinning can cause soil disturbance and degrade habitat for species that have become used to the dense forests of the past century. We work to ensure our industry partners support ecologically sound restoration.
We work with the Forest Service to study water sources on the Coconino and Kaibab national forests. The data our volunteers collect helps inform forest restoration plans. We’ve hiked dozens of miles along stream channels, marking where water emerges and disappears, and have assessed more than 40 springs.
What's the big deal about protecting the woods? For starters, it could save millions of tax payer dollars. Read our seven reasons for forest restoration ›
Forests play a key role in capturing, filtering, and supplying clean water for the communities, plants, and animals that live nearby. The state of Arizona only receives about 12 inches of rain each year, so it's important to conserve and protect our scarce water resources.
Climate change — Climate change is already affecting the Colorado Plateau, and scientists agree that the Southwest will continue to get hotter and drier over the coming decades. For forests, this means increased stress from drought, invasive species, pest outbreaks, and fires.
Wildfire — Big blazes not only threaten homes and infrastructure, but they also send loads of ash and debris into our waterways, which can kill aquatic life and impact water quality.
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