ARIZONA — A historic Shared Stewardship Agreement signed last month by U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Dr. Homer Wilkes and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs will help the USDA Forest Service accelerate the pace and scale of vital forest fuels reduction and restoration efforts across the state as part of the Wildfire Crisis Strategy in the Southwest.

The deal, which builds on a previous Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, will help the Forest Service continue to address projects in high-priority firesheds across Arizona’s 11 million acres of forest lands by using funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

“We had three distinct strategies we wanted to address,”  Wilkes said. “We wanted to increase the pace and scale of forest health restoration treatments, identify cross-boundary solutions, as well as identify mutual science-based priorities, so I’m pleased to have a continuation of that type of partnership.”

Grounded in the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy, a multi-year plan announced in 2022 that works to address the nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis, the agreement allows the Forest Service to leverage resources from outside the agency to work faster and more efficiently to implement forest projects that protect infrastructure and water quality, and lower wildfire risks for neighboring communities. 

Three of the 21 Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes are located in Arizona: The Four Forest Restoration Initiative, The San Carlos Apache Tribal Forest Protection Act   and the Greater Prescott.

“Arizonans are under the threat of wildfire 365 days a year, and the threat posed by wildfires grows every year, which means we need all the tools available to combat them,”  Hobbs said. “Thousands of state, federal and local partners worked with us to address nearly 2,000 wildfires in Arizona this year. Arizonans across the state – from Flagstaff, to Tortilla Flat, to Payson and even on the outskirts of Phoenix – faced threats this year.”

Hobbs said the agreement includes an annual planning meeting between the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management and the Forest Service to identify priority landscapes and coordinate fire prevention and mitigation efforts, expands the acreage of Good Neighbor Authority projects, outlines a shared transportation agreement that will facilitate access to land for forest operators and contractors, shares mapping data between the state and the Forest Service and aims to establish a biomass disposal and utilization system within the next year and a half.

The new agreement highlights a crucial partnership between the State of Arizona and the Forest Service, but also engagement from local governments, non-profits and corporate partners, including The Nature Conservancy and the Salt River Project, an electrical and water utility provider for much of central Arizona.

“[The Salt River Project] helps us leverage our efforts at the state in coordination with the Forest Service. Through this relationship, there are over 90,000 acres already in existing agreements to do treatments on the federal landscape,” Torres said. “To date, over $37 million of federal investments have been made on those Forest Service lands, and they have been matched to the tune of $25 million. This is a model unique to Arizona, and this agreement today will continue to build on this success.”

Forest maintenance and restoration projects made possible by the agreement also help contribute to local economies, with most projects being joint, public-private ventures that rely on outside companies to complete the work, in turn creating jobs and providing economic stimulus to largely rural Arizona. 

“One key to success for private industry is consistent supply,” Torres said. “The agreement seeks to help this issue by making larger project areas available for bidding and award by DFFM which will help reduce that uncertainty to private business.”

Torres, along with the Forest Service, also emphasized the importance of collaborating with tribal leaders as the agreement is implemented, ensuring the perspectives of those who have stewarded our land for thousands of years are incorporated into future work . 

“The federal government has a unique trust responsibility owed to tribes, which we will not abrogate. The Forest Service, as a federal agency, strives to uphold that trust responsibility through tribal consultation and collaboration with tribes,” said Reed Robinson, director of Tribal Relations for the Forest Service. “By providing tribes an opportunity to have a seat at the table, we are able to hear directly from them on tribal needs, issues, concerns, opportunities and collaborate to achieve outcomes that not only meets tribal needs, but also serves our mission in the Forest Service.”