For the next four and a half months, the sounds of feller-bunchers, processors and log trucks will be a common one around the lower Dry Lake Hills and the base of Mount Elden.
This week, loggers are getting into full swing on the thinning of 642 acres of forest north of Flagstaff as part of the Flagstaff Watershed Restoration Project, or FWPP. The deadline for those acres to be completed is the end of the year.
The work is part of the first phase of the fuels reduction project, which uses hand and mechanical thinning as well as prescribed fire in the Rio de Flag and Lake Mary watersheds. The work aims to mitigate the risk of severe fires and destructive post-fire flooding around Flagstaff’s key water sources. A $10 million bond to support the project was approved by the city’s voters in 2012.
For the next month or so, the logging contractor will be mechanically thinning in an area east of Elden Lookout Road and north of the Pipeline Trail, near the intersection of the Rocky Ridge Trail and the Lower Oldham Trail, said Sean Murphy, an environmental protection specialist on the Coconino National Forest.
Trails that will be closed during this segment of work include the Lower Oldham and Rocky Ridge trails. The Arizona Trail will be re-routed through the city. Signs warning of area closures and the presence of logging activity are posted on trails and roads. The closures are enforced at all times — not just when work is going on — because the logging creates hazards in the forest that aren’t immediately cleaned up, said FWPP Coordinator Jessica Richardson.
From the Arizona Daily Sun: https://azdailysun.com/news/local/mechanical-thinning-begins-in-dry-lake-hills-north-of-flagstaff/article_e4c8a899-019e-5aa1-8fe6-7a7069b74445.html