Four Forest Restoration Initiative: Partners
The Four Forest Restoration Initiative benefits from savvy partners who can “see the forest through the trees,” keeping focus on the big picture of hazardous fuels reduction. Through shared partnerships, 4FRI’s model of on-the-ground forest management is working.
Partners build capacity to restore the 4FRI’s landscape through active forest management. In Fiscal Year 2024, the 4FRI landscape treated more than 200,000 acres.
So, who is behind 4FRI’s work? The 4FRI program has created alliances with the State of Arizona, counties, industry, utilities, and non-profit organizations. Partners don’t just bring funding to the table but create capacity and efficiencies. Collaboration brings solutions to benefit overall forest health; diversify wildlife and plant species; and create and/or sustain ecosystems for the long term.
4FRI's Partners
Joel Jurgens of The Nature Conservancy visits the site of the Sawmill Springs project on the Kaibab National Forest.
(USDA Forest Service photo)4FRI’s robust partners include, amongst others:
- County representatives from all 4FRI counties (Coconino, Apache, Gila, Navajo, Yavapai, Greenlee and Graham counties)
- City of Flagstaff
- Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management
- Arizona Game and Fish Department
- Bureau of Reclamation
- United States Geological Survey
- Salt River Project
- Arizona Commerce Authority
- National Forest Foundation
- Ecological Restoration Institute
Members of the National Baptist Convention stand with a masticator on the 4FRI landscape.
(USDA Forest Service photo)- The Nature Conservancy
- The Center for Biological Diversity
- Trout Unlimited
- Great Old Broads of Wilderness
- The Grand Canyon Trust
- Arizona Elk Society
- National Wild Turkey Federation
- Northern Arizona Loggers Association
- Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
- Mule Deer Foundation
- Northern Arizona University
- Museum of Northern Arizona
- American Conservation Experience
4FRI Stakeholder Group
Chartered in 2010, the 4FRI Stakeholder Group initially was instrumental in the development of the 1st 4FRI EIS and the Rim Country EIS and associated strategic plans. Today, the group works with the Forest Service to provide direction for project implementation, monitoring, and oversight of emerging issues. The Forest Service adapts treatments to account for changing conditions and new information.
Membership is drawn from local, county, and state government, the private sector, forest-products industry, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and the public. 4FRI Stakeholder Group’s meetings are open to the public.
The 4FRI Stakeholder Group has five working groups:
- 4FRI Multi-Party Monitoring Board (MPMB): Monitoring conducted in collaboration with Forest Service.
- Modernization Group: Innovative practices and technologies to increase efficiencies in operations
- Industry Group: Invests in operations and biomass disposal to sustain industry to treat acres
- Implementation Group: Improves forest and watershed health and mitigates post-fire flooding
- Prioritization Group: Evaluates treatments for restoring ecosystems and achieving objectives.
The 4FRI Stakeholder Group prepared a 4FRI Accomplishments Briefing Paper (July 2025) to share with a wide range of external stakeholders, including Washington officials and congressionals. Factoids include:
- For every federal dollar invested, industry and partners are said to invest more than $2.
- In high-risk areas like 4FRI, restoration funding sees and estimated $7 return for every $1 invested, saving billions of dollars by avoiding catastrophic fires and post-wildfire flooding.
Prioritized Treatments
In response to the president’s goals of increased forest management, the voice of partners informs 4FRI’s leadership on who, what, when, where, and how to treat within the northern Arizona landscape. Partners guide 4FRI’s prioritization to identify treatment areas meant to overcome “random acts of restoration” and instead focus on acres tied to wildfire protection. This may mean prioritizing fewer acres at a higher cost on a steep slope rather than a larger number of “easy” flat acres.
“It's not the acres that you treat or how many acres you treat—it's are you treating the right acres?” said Jay Smith, forest restoration director of Coconino County Flood Control District, Flagstaff, AZ.
High-Priority Projects
4FRI invests in high-priority partnership projects, as defined in its 2021 4FRI Restoration Strategy. These collaborative projects typically involve partners due to their importance to other agencies and stakeholders.
Heavy machinery from the Sawmill Springs project, Kaibab National Forest.
(USDA Forest Service photo)Example Partner Project
The influence of partners can be seen every direction you look on the 4FRI landscape, whether incorporating mechanical or fire-related methods or related meadow restoration and wildlife improvements.
The Arizona Elk Society, as an example, built fence in fall 2024 to protect Buck Springs meadow function on the Coconino National Forest’s Mogollon Rim District, within the 4FRI footprint. The Buck Springs project spotlights how forest thinning and prescribed burns, paired with active stream channel restoration, can improve watershed function and build resiliency to disturbance. Restored spring environments act as sponges—holding water longer and creating wet environments that promote riparian and wetland habitat and serving as natural fire breaks. These types of restoration actions help provide clean, sustained water for downstream cities, including Phoenix.