Four national forests are actively engaged in a collaborative, landscape-scale initiative designed to restore fire-adapted ecosystems in the Southwestern Region. Those forests are the Kaibab, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto. Together with a diverse group of stakeholders, the four forests are working to collaboratively plan and carry out landscape-scale restoration of ponderosa pine forests in northern Arizona.
The overall goal of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) is to restore the structure, pattern and composition of fire-adapted ecosystems, which will provide for fuels reduction, forest health, and wildlife and plant diversity. A key objective is doing this while creating sustainable ecosystems and industries in the long term. Appropriately-scaled businesses will likely play a key role in the effort by harvesting, processing and selling wood products. The restoration-based work opportunities are expected to create jobs across northern Arizona.
4FRI has been selected as a pilot project for the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Pilot Program. The selection will allow 4FRI to serve as a national model for collaborative NEPA planning at the landscape scale.
