ARIZONA—Tonto National Forest officials recently announced a collaborative landscape-scale project that will improve forest health on over 115,000 acres on the Globe Ranger District while also reducing the risk of wildfires on the neighboring San Carlos Apache Reservation.

The Highway Tanks Tribal Forest Protection Act project is scheduled to begin in February and take place along the eastern boundary of the Tonto, adjacent to the San Carlos Apache Reservation. It will use mechanical thinning and prescribed burning to restore watersheds, reduce forest density and increase grass cover to shift the ecosystem back to a more “natural” and historic vegetative state. This will allow low-to-moderate fire to return in its natural cycle.

The project includes watersheds within portions of the Upper Salt River and San Carlos sub-basins. Additionally, the project area involves:

• Improvements to Mexican spotted owl habitat to mitigate the effects of catastrophic wildfires on owl protected activity centers, as well as increasing grazing productivity and improving elk habitat. Ponderosa pine stands will also benefit from the application of low intensity prescribed fire to decrease pine seedling competition for resources such as nutrients, sunlight and water.
• Ancestral lands that are historically home to the Nadah Dogolnihé (Apache Peaks Band), the Sandé Dot’án (San Carlos Band), and the Łinabahá (Western White Mountain Band).

Benefits from mechanical thinning and prescribed fires include improved plant and wildlife habitat, increased biodiversity, wildlife corridors, clean water, flood control, the protection of culturally significant native foods and plants, improved timber stands and recreational opportunities, and reduced threat of invasive species on the landscape.

The project’s origin dates to February 2017, when San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler formally submitted the project request under the authority of the Tribal Forest Protection Act to the Tonto. The Tribal Act provides a tool for tribes to propose work on adjacent federal lands that would protect triibal forest land and resources.  

The proposal identified an area for treatment for the purpose of restoring the land to pre-reservation conditions under the Tribe’s Integrated Resource Management Plan by reintroducing fire to a fire-dependent ecosystem and creating a fire-safe buffer from potential wildfires.

In coordination with the Highway Tanks Tribal Forest Protection Act Project, the San Carlos Apache Reservation will implement prescribed fire and manual treatments on 125,000 acres of reservation land as a continuation of treatments on the Tonto to extend across boundaries.

Globe District Ranger Adam Bromley said that treatments will help the forest achieve desired conditions as specified in the Tonto’s Land and Resource Management Plan, which includes establishing landscapes more resilient to drought and unnatural fire.

“Fire is as critical to our forest’s health as water and sunshine,” Bromley said. “Working with the San Carlos Apache Tribe and within their tribal land management principles will focus our efforts on developing resilient and adaptive ecosystems together.”