FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Planning has begun for thinning projects in Arizona’s Coconino, Kaibab, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests.
The area encompasses an 800,000-acre swath from south of Mormon Lake, west into the Kaibab National Forest and north toward Tusayan.
U.S. Forest Service managers would solicit private contractors to begin thinning trees by 2012 or 2013.
The project would last 20 years and would thin ponderosa pine on 2.4 million acres of northern Arizona.
Forest managers and officials at Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration Institute say that will make forests healthier and less likely to have very intense wildfires.
Institute director Wally Covington says it’s going to be the largest restoration project ever attempted.
Officials say thinned trees generally would be 16 inches and smaller and outside wilderness, steep ravines or contested areas.
Information from: Arizona Daily Sun, http://www.azdailysun.com
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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