In 2002, the Rodeo-Chediski fire tore through Arizona’s White Mountains. Fueled by dense undergrowth left by a century of fire exclusion, the fire burned across nearly 500,000 acres of tribal, federal and private lands — destroying 465 homes and forcing 30,000 residents to evacuate.

Now, just five years later, the green forests of the White Mountains and the surrounding communities are well on their way to recovery. This remarkable turn-around is due to a unique initiative that removes unhealthy undergrowth and provides small-diameter timber to local businesses.

Thanks to this effort, many communities in the eastern Arizona forests now have: 

• Improved forest health;
• Protective zones around vulnerable neighborhoods and residences; and
• A revitalized and growing local wood products industry.

The success of restoration efforts in the White Mountains could serve as a model for similar projects under the proposed Forest Landscape Restoration Act. The Nature Conservancy supports this bill as a crucial step toward restoring America’s forests and creating jobs in forest-based communities.

Threats to Our Forests

Healthy forests are vital for people and nature. Forests provide clean water, support livelihoods, shelter wildlife and help maintain a stable climate. Many forests are fire-dependent, requiring occasional and sometimes frequent natural fires to clear excess vegetation that, if built up, threatens forest health.

Unfortunately, the perceived danger of forest fires has led to nearly a century of fire exclusion in America's forests, creating an unhealthy and volatile situation. This vegetation build-up:

• Increases the risk and severity of forest fires;
• Hinders tree growth and regeneration; and
• Makes forests more susceptible to diseases and pests such as bark beetles.

The cost of suppressing fires like the Rodeo-Chediski is sky-rocketing, reaching well over $1 billion a year. In addition, the fuel loads in forests across the country have reached dangerous levels — seven of the worst fires since the 1950s have occurred in the last 11 years.

And many communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods have suffered due to a decline in the local timber industry. America’s forests are facing a crisis.

The Forest Landscape Restoration Act

Under this new legislation introduced in the Senate, up to 10 tracts of land of at least 50,000 acres would be selected annually to receive federal funding for badly needed forest health restoration. Funding will be guaranteed for 10 years.

The by-products generated through the thinning of excess vegetation in these areas would in turn stimulate a local wood processing industry, bringing economic benefits to the community and reducing the costs of thinning over time, potentially by as much as 50 percent within five years.

Under the measure, sites for the thinning program would be chosen based on a variety of factors including:

• Demonstrated ecological need;
• The participation of multiple stakeholders in collaborative planning;
• Sound science; and
• Private investment.

The Nature Conservancy strongly urges Congress to pass this important piece of legislation that would restore America’s forests and create local, sustainable jobs.

A Model For Success

The criteria for selecting sites will be based on the experience of the White Mountains where, just two-and-a-half years into a 10-year restoration program, the effort has been credited with taking the first steps towards restoring forest health and helping revitalize the forest-based economy.

Prior to the adoption of the restoration program, the White Mountains experienced years of fire exclusion efforts and logging moratoriums. Typical forest conditions included overstocked stands with 10 to 20 times the typical tree density and decreased tree vigor.

Two years after the devastating Rodeo-Chediski fire, community leaders came together to support the U.S. Forest Service’s decision to implement a new forest stewardship program. The program includes a thinning process that preserves the more mature, fire-resistant trees and removes smaller trees that serve as easy fuel for fires.

And a new timber industry is making use of these smaller trees. For example, The Forest Energy Corporation of Show Low, Arizona, manufactures wood pellet fuel, fuel logs and animal bedding from the by-products generated through the thinning of local forests. Forest Energy increased its capacity by 50 percent after the forest stewardship plan went into effect.

An Opportunity for Sustainable Solutions

The need for large-scale efforts to restore forest health — such as those taking place in the White Mountains — is urgent. Across the country, only 2 percent of the total forest lands that need thinning, fuel reduction and restoration work are currently being treated.

Many landscapes have the enabling conditions to replicate the White Mountains success, all they need now is the funding. The Forest Landscape Restoration Act provides the best chance to restore forest health in a comprehensive, cost-effective and sustainable way that will benefit nature and people.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Suzanne Sitko/The Nature Conservancy (Arizona White Mountains); Photo © Harvey Payne (Fire in Oklahoma).