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Forest Service needs help for local <br>restoration aimed at forest health<br>

Kaibab National Forest Supervisor Mike Williams speaks to Williams Rotary Club about steps to get community involved in forest restoration for future funding and cooperation to protect community structures and forest health.

Williams outlined step by step on how local agencies, governments, businesses and citizens can get on board with funding for necessary forest restoration; emphasizing that “time is of the essence.”

Forest Service officials said involvement in forest restoration sooner than later, will save money and resources in the future. Recent federal legislation through the Healthy Forest Restoration Act requires communities to develop their own wildfire protection plan if anything is to be done.

“I would hope the Rotary Club would take an active stance on this,” Williams said.

The fundamental step needed to get this program going, is for the city and fire department to approach state land agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service and then collaborate in finding other interested parties to draft a wildland-urban interface plan, Williams said.

All involved groups of the community need to establish what areas are at risk for fire and where these thinning projects should be located to reduce the risk.

“The intent is to restore the ecosystem so fires do not have such a large impact,” Williams said.

The HFR Act authorizes 20 million acres to be treated with tree thinning and prescribed burns. Williams assured that funding obtained through this act is designed to continue for many years after, until the problem is corrected.

Other communities, such as Flagstaff, have taken advantage of these changes in forestry policies by organizing early. Groups like the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership have initiated the kind of collaborative efforts Williams is talking about.

City Manager Dennis Wells explained that the city of Williams is ready to help, except their ability to do something quickly and effective is complicated.

“The city has limited resources, so we will be working with the county and state,” Wells said.

He explained over 16,000 acres in the Williams area need treatment and many fragmented private properties exist within areas needing the treatment. Somehow, these property owners will need to contact city or Forest Service officials so a plan can be devised as soon as possible.

Risk reduction and economic incentives

One aspect of new thinning measures that have many communities optimistic, is the possibility of jobs created through industries that can use the small diameter wood taken from thinning.

Williams informed the Rotary that thinning around town might also provide a good economic opportunity. His advice comes at a time when the Arizona senate just passed legislation to give timber companies up to a 50 percent tax break if they employ Arizona residents and use trees from thinning projects for 50 percent of their output.

Roxanne George from the Southwest Forest Alliance in Flagstaff, warned that this bill as is, could be detrimental to Arizona if state lawmakers aren’t careful. The bill requires companies receiving this proposed tax-break to use small diameter trees obtained from thinning in 50 percent of their production. Her concern is that companies may take advantage of these tax incentives and then go cut old growth in areas like New Mexico or Utah.

“Without limitations on logging of large trees and old growth, it means that a good deal of this program could promote the same kind of logging that has helped give us unhealthy conditions in the forests currently,” George said.

President of the Arizona Logging Association and Secretary Treasurer of High Desert Investment Company (a Flagstaff tree-harvesting firm), G. Allen Ribelin said there are many complications and problems with logging as a viable economic option at this time.

“It is not about (tax) incentives, it is about (timber) supply,” Ribelin said.

Ribelin said the government owns about 95 percent of the forestland, but cannot sell trees to be cut because of incessant lawsuits by environmental organizations. He claims it would be difficult to rely on small diameter trees for a profitable harvest and cutting large trees would make a northern Arizona timber operation more viable.

The proposed Savanna Pacific facility for Bellemont, will utilize new technological innovations to strengthen boards made from small trees. This comes at a time when northern Arizona is overwhelmed with this resource.

Sylviculturalist for the Kaibab National Forest, John Holmes, said that the Forest Service does not sell old growth to be cut because there is not many left these days.

“The Forest Service in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona are not offering any large diameter trees,” Holmes said.

The problem lies with the thickets of small trees that steal water, sunlight and nutrients from each other. Few trees will grow at a healthy rate to ever become old growth under these conditions.


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