A New Approach to Forest Restoration in the American Southwest
In response to growing interest in building agreement on cost-effective ways to improve forest health while supporting appropriate-scaled industry, a broad coalition of stakeholders called for a multi-jurisdictional study of small diameter wood supply, focusing on ponderosa pine, in northen Arizona. With guidance from a diverse five-member Steering Committe, the Forest Ecosystem Restoraton Analysis (ForestERA) Project at NAU designed and implemented a 7-month, collaborator-driven analysis. Seven public meetings with Working Group members were held at three different location in northern Arizona from June through November 2007. The project objectives were to:
- Mobilize the best-available science to quantify ponderosa pine wood supply by size-class across the analysis area of 2.4 million acres in northern Arizona.
- Fully engage a Working Group comprised of agency representatives and community, industry and other stakeholders, in a collaborative process to build agreement on appropriate restoration treatments to facilitate the removal of small diameter woody biomass.
- Estimate the volume of small diameter woody material which would be removed following collaboratively -developed restoration treatment scenarios.
- Survey and recommend forest growth models to inform forecasted increases in wood volume.
Data products, including the Small diameter wood supply analysis final report, or to request related spatial data, visit our products page under the Wood Supply section.
