Arizona Forest
Restoration Products Inc.
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Arizona Forest Restoration Products Inc. |
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National Forests
National forests of non-reserved ponderosa pine sawtimber and poletimber total 1.9 million acres in Arizona (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Resource Bulletin RMRS-RB-2: Arizona’s Forest Resources, 1999) - 1.4 million acres of which are located within Coconino County around Flagstaff; and 1.5 million acres in New Mexico (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Resource Bulletin RMRS-RB-3: New Mexico’s Forest Resources, 2000).
Fundamentally, the debate about the necessity to prevent catastrophic wildfires and to manage national forests through controlled and sustainable thinning of small diameter trees has already taken place, and all political, environmental, governmental, and legal constituents have already agreed on the vital necessity to involve private industry in a self-sustainable and economically viable model. Following the two dramatic wildfire seasons of 2001 and 2002, Congress passed with a broad bipartisan majority the Healthy Forest Restoration Act that was signed into law in December 2003.
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act aims at reducing the threat of destructive wildfires while upholding environmental standards and encouraging early public input during review and planning processes. The legislation is based on sound science and helps further the Healthy Forests Initiative intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire to communities, help save the lives of firefighters and citizens, and protect threatened and endangered species.
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act strengthens public participation in developing high priority forest health projects; reduces the complexity of environmental analysis, allowing federal land agencies to use the best science available to actively manage land under their protection; provides a more effective appeals process encouraging early public participation in project planning; and issues clear guidance for court action against forest health projects.
USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region 10 Year Treatment Plan
To guarantee at least a minimum program of forest fuel reduction, in 2005 the USDA Forest Service established a Southwestern Region 10-year Treatment Plan that includes Arizona and New Mexico.
In the 5 National Forests located in Arizona and the 4 National Forests located in New Mexico that are within the wood sourcing range of Arizona Forest Restoration Products, the Treatment Plan typically scheduled the treatment of approximately 93,000 acres every year:
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southwestern Region 10 year Treatment Plan, draft, published June 15, 2005. * Gila National Forest data not reported in the Forest Service draft. Numbers have been estimated based on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest data.
It must be noted that this plan was established based on the Forest Service’s expectation that thinning operations will have to be subsidized by the Forest Service’s budget, and that in consequence they have to be limited based not on the desirability to treat larger areas (the Arizona and New Mexico ponderosa pine forests occupy 3.0 million and 2.8 million acres!) but on departmental funding. This plan is therefore the absolute minimum treatment required, and in the words of one National Forest official, they would like to “considerably exceed” this minimum.
Arizona Forest Restoration Products’s annual 32,000 acres of treatment represents only maybe 10%, or even less, of the acreage that the USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region would like to see treated annually for hazardous fuel reduction in the 9 National Forests that are within the wood sourcing range of Arizona Forest Restoration Products.
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