The Forest Service has finalized a plan to advance the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, which includes the restoration of the Coconino, Kaibab, Apache-Sitgreaves, and Tonto Forest ecosystems along the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona.
Arizona senators Jeff Flake and John McCain applauded the decision and urged the Department to continue to make this project a priority.
“With this National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis complete, the Forest Service and 4FRI contractors should be in a position to move forward with forest restoration projects on more than 586,000 acres of national forest system lands in Arizona using mechanical thinning and prescribed burns,” wrote McCain and Flake in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “For years, we have heard that the lack of a completed NEPA analysis was one of the biggest impediments to aggressively thinning our forest. Now, that is no longer an excuse. In the end, performance on the ground will be the real measure of successes for the collaborative 4FRI effort. It is our expectation that with the recent 4FRI decision penned, demonstrable progress will be made to thin our forests beginning this summer.”