Study: Forest Restoration Activity Fuels Jobs and Economic Impact Across Northern Arizona
Protecting nature starts with science.
Project Objective
It’s well known that forest restoration has vast benefits for people and nature, including reduced wildfire risk for communities and improved habitat for native species.
What’s less known is how the forest restoration industry impacts the lives and livelihoods of the people and economies adjacent to thinning work.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has a long legacy of working across sectors and collaborating with partners to improve forest health. This approach includes finding new markets for low-value, fire-prone timber and working with industry to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and increase the pace and scale of forest restoration work.
Understanding the economic impact would also be beneficial for private industry, government and other partners so they can make better-informed decisions about whether to accelerate restoration work that benefits Arizona’s forests and forested communities.
Voices From the Field
"There was an assumption that restoration is a significant contributor to the economies of the rural communities. However, we lacked data to fully understand the extent. This analysis now informs federal agencies, state and municipal partners, policymakers, and the private sector of the positive impacts to the economies of northern Arizona." -Joel Jurgens, Forest Program Director
Progress and Opportunity
Arizona’s hotter, drier climate and a century of fire suppression in the West have created a tinderbox of small-diameter trees susceptible to uncharacteristically severe wildfires.
To mitigate this challenge, TNC, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and other stakeholders, has been working to increase the pace and scale of thinning in the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), with a goal of restoring more than 2 million acres across the Kaibab, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto National Forests. Led by TNC Arizona’s Science Team, TNC released a new study in 2024 to understand the economic impact of restoration.
The study found that in 2023, restoration activities involving about 17,000 acres in the 4FRI fueled $216 million in economic impact and supported more than 1,000 full- and- part-time jobs.
While focused on Arizona, the study portends encouraging takeaways for other Western Dry Forests, where TNC is working to make landscapes better adapted to the impacts of climate change across the American West. Spanning nearly 150 million acres across 11 U.S. states and Canada, western dry forests are crucial ecosystems that support critical life in the West.
In Arizona, TNC has been working to grow and diversify its industry partners, which are key to increasing the pace and scale of restoration.
“The study affirmed that our work to contribute to the growth of a diverse network of industry partners and operators over the past 10 to 15 years has started to pay off in terms of economic impact to the region,” said Travis Woolley, Forest and Wildland Fire Ecologist and study lead for TNC Arizona.
The study examined industries involved in forest restoration, including thinning, chipping, grinding, sawmills, mechanics, trucking, maintenance and more.
| Industry Description | Total Employment* | Total Output |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial logging | 230 | $39,608,697 |
| Support activities for agriculture and forestry | 98 | $2,842,250 |
| Sawmill | 90 | $37,434,907 |
| Employment and payroll of federal govt, non-military | 77 | $11,627,424 |
| Truck transportation | 60 | $13,659,149 |
| All other crop farming | 45 | $92,609 |
| Maintenance and repair construction of highways, streets, bridges and tunnels | 39 | $9,025,946 |
| Construction of new highways and streets | 33 | $4,874,441 |
| All other miscellaneous wood product manufacturing | 29 | $7,845,318 |
| Electric power generation - Restoration Residuals | 25 | $33,477,418 |
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