After almost four years of work, the U.S. Forest Service has released its final plan for restoration work on almost 600,000 acres of northern Arizona forests. It is believed to be the largest single restoration project in the nation.
The Forest Service’s plan states that each year 45,000 acres of forest within the project area will be mechanically treated while 40,000 to 60,000 acres will see prescribed fire each year. Over a period of 10 years, about 75 percent of the 600,000 acres will be mechanically thinned and treated with prescribed fire while the other 25 percent will see only prescribed fire.
The project aims for post-restoration forests to have a tree density of 12 to 125 trees per acre, compared with the current average density of 400 to 1,000 trees per acre across the 4FRI area.
The Forest Service’s chosen plan of action will improve 23 percent of at-risk and 42 percent of impaired watersheds, increasing water yield. It will reduce the bark beetle hazard rating from 84 percent to 22 percent and spur aspen regeneration. This alternative will also create the most forest-related jobs and produce the least smoke emissions over the project’s 10-year timeline.
“Part of the interesting nature of collaborative processes like this is there’s a long list of things people want and in the end, if the collaboration is successful, folks usually get what they need,” said Ethan Aumack, conservation director with the Grand Canyon Trust who has worked on the project since it began. “I think we’ve reached that threshold here.”
From the Arizona Daily Sun: https://azdailysun.com/news/local/fri-close-to-clearing-major-environmental-hurdle/article_671e46d2-89a3-50a6-ae7b-7561bc672f1e.html