Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Four Forest Restoration Initiative, also known as 4FRI.

Breathing life back into the woods

Image shows a sawmill and loading material at the base of a forested range of mountains.
Launched in 2010, the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) emerged from a critical need. After a hundred years of fire suppression, ponderosa forests became dangerously crowded, posing risks to local communities and the water supplies. (Forest Service video by Preston Keres)A $300 million sawmill might not seem like a typical hero in combating devastating wildfires. Still, in northern…
#FourForestRestorationInitiative

State partnerships aid forest restoration in Dude Fire burn scar

USFS shield
As shown in this treated section from Phase 1 of the Dude Fire Restoration Project in winter 2023, mastication reduces competing vegetation, resulting in more water and nutrients being available to remaining trees. The remaining, masticated material on the ground stabilizes soils and prevents…
#FourForestRestorationInitiative, #GoodNeighborAuthority, #DudeFireRestoration, #Partnerships

Dude Fire restoration project

A view of a treated area from the dude fire shows spacing of live new growth among a serval dead standing trees.
This Phase 1 landscape view of the Dude Fire Restoration Project area shows what it looked like before the treatment started. (USDA Forest Service photo by Patricia Ringle). “Living with fire” -- understanding its role in ecology, management and communities – is an expression that became all…
#WildfireCrisisStrategy, #FourForestRestorationInitiative, #DudeFireRestoration