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White Mountains Region Landscape Assessment

ForestERA is working with the U.S. Forest Service and the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University to develop a collaborative landscape assessment process to identify restoration needs and priorities across most of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, which includes the ponderosa pine belt extending from the New Mexico border to the boundary of the Coconino National Forest.

The White Mountains Region Landscape Assessment study area is contiguous with the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

The purpose of the landscape assessment is to bring a diverse set of stakeholders, scientists, and managers together to identify priorities for restoration and discuss possible management approaches, using a GIS-based mapping and modeling system. This will build upon work already completed with the creation of community wildfire protection plans by looking at restoration needs across the larger landscape, including wildlands.

The majority of project work was completed in calendar year 2005. We gathered information from community members to help design a workshop (Final Workshop Report) useful to the residents and land managers in this region. A Stakeholder Needs Assessment (7 MB PDF) summarizing this input is available. ForestERA acquired and developed spatial layers for use in geospatial analysis and modeling. These layers are described in ForestERA's White Mountains Landscape Assessment Data Atlas (7MB PDF). Email ForestERA if you would like to be sent a copy of the GIS Spatial Data CD. For information on current developments regarding this assessment, please contact community liaison Jesse Abrams at ERI (contact info) or the ForestERA project.