Town of Eagar
Mechanical Thinning
In 2002, the Eagar
Fire Department received $18,800 from a AZ State Land Department
State Fire Assistance grant to thin eight miles of pinon pine, juniper
and ponderosa pine along the National Forest in the southwest portion
of town. The money was intended to purchase a wood chipper and assist
residents in Eagar, Alpine and Greer with thinning, pruning and
chipping on private property to reduce fire risk. Having a chipper
available to the three communities was to give the citizens a method
to dispose of material that is removed from their properties. It
also would provide an avenue for the local fire departments to be
proactive with the citizens to provide the emphasis for fire safe
communities in the WUI. The goal was to accomplish at least 10 acres
of thinning/pruning and chipping for demonstration projects within
each community within the first year for at total of 30 acres. By
the end of 2003, these projects had not happened. While Eagar, Alpine
and Greer were awarded the SFA grant in 2002 for a chipper, Alpine
and Greer were unable to come up with their portion of the matching
funds. Chief Carlson could not justify Eagar paying the entire match
since he did not feel the town would use the chipper enough to warrant
the cost. The grant reverted to the State.
Town Clean
Up
Every April or May starting in 1996, Eagar
has had a town cleanup period that lasts about two weeks. As part
of this effort, the town comes by and takes slash with dump trucks
and front end loaders. The Fire Department burns large piles of
slash as well. They burn 50-75 piles a year in this fashion to reduce
fuels.
Prescribed Burning
In 2001, Eagar Fire Department received a $10,900
State
Fire Assistance (SFA) grant from the AZ State Land Department
program to prescribe burn 400 acres on the west and south side of
town to reduce the risk of large fires burning into the community.
Fine fuel loading is high in locations within the town limits and
adjacent to the community's boundaries. The goal is to reduce fuel
loading and break up the continuity of fuel to reduce the wildfire
risk. The community is bordered on the south side by eight miles
of Apache National Forest and three miles of AZ state land on the
west.
The community is classified as high risk due to
the wildland urban interface and proximity to forested land. Burning
was to take place on private and AZ State Lands and would be conducted
in conjunction with Eagar VFD and the USFS. By the end of 2003,
they had treated 350 acres of private land with prescribed burning
through this grant. Burning is conducted at a landowner's request.
If a private landowner wants a field or property burned they contact
the fire department. The fire department will perform the burn at
no cost to the land owner. There is no coordination with State Land
Department or USFS when the town schedules these burns.
In 2002, the Eagar Fire Department received
an additional $12,500 from a AZ State Land Department SFA grant
to prescribe burn 300 acres of fine fuels to reduce the risk of
wildland fires threatening the lives and destroying property. The
2002 grant was also intended for landowner requested prescribed
burning. By the end of 2003, these projects had not happened. According
to Chief Carlson, manpower and time are the holdup. Since Carlson
is the only paid, full-time fireman, he is spread thin and finds
it difficult to keep up with the administrative processes that go
along with the SFA grants, as well as finding the manpower from
an all volunteer fire fighting force to do the work. If the grant
is not usedt within a two year period, the money will be returned
to the AZ State Land Department.
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US Forest Service
The Forest Service has not aggressively
pursued  fuel
reduction projects on their lands that abut private property
in Eagar. In 2001, 2002 and 2003 the USFS has not thinned
or prescribe burned acreage near Eagar. However, the Eagar
South project is currently an Environmental Impact Analysis.
The analysis area is in the most at-risk area south of Eagar,
where the vegetation transitions from grass to pinon-juniper.
Treatment is likely to begin in 2006 for this project. According
to the local USFS and Arizona State Land Department, Eagar
is not at significant high risk of wildfire. The real risk
is in the surrounding communities located in ponderosa pine
forests, such as Greer, Alpine, Pinetop-Lakeside and Show
Low.
White Mountain Stewardship Project
In 2004 Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest put out to bid the White
Mountains Stewardship Project —a ten-year, 150,000
acre project that will offer from 5,000 acres to 20,000 acres
of forest lands to contractors each year, making this project
the largest restoration project in the nation. Many believe
the White Mountain project will be the key to successfully
developing the SDT industry in the area.Stewardship contracts
are the key to the White Mountain project. A stewardship contract
allows for the costs of removal of small diameter residue
and slash to be exchanged for the value of the excess forest
products that are removed. One goal is to find uses for all
the wood fiber thereby reducing the amount of wood burned
in the forest. One of the features of a stewardship contract
is the capability to have a 10-year term which will encourage
businesses to invest in the future of forest restoration activities.
The contract will be a "performance
based service contract" with evaluation factors which
not only encourages contractors to propose a variety of methods
to efficiently produce quality end results in the forest but
requires use of local labor and industry to produce and market
wood products. Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest Supervisor
Elaine Zieroth said, "In the past, separate contracts
have been awarded for multi-product timber harvest with associated
slash treatments. This was usually followed by another entry
for the thinning of some small diameter trees with treatment
of that slash. This is inefficient and therefore more costly
to the taxpayer. The stewardship contract allows us to combine
these multiple entries into one operation which should result
in a cost savings to the taxpayer and produce a healthier
forest in a shorter time".
According to Zieroth, "The forest lands we're needing
to work on in this contract are in the wildland/urban interface
which currently have anywhere from 300 to 3,000 trees per
acre on them. We hope to reduce those numbers closer to what
grew there historically which was about 20 to 60 trees per
acre. We've got to reduce the number of trees across the Forests
on a large scale so that the threat of catastrophic fire will
be minimized and enabling the remaining trees to better resist
drought and insects."
Three site visits will be offered to potential
contractors to demonstrate the level of effort that will be
required of them. Award of the contract will be based upon
the proposal that provides the best value to the government
with consideration given to past performance, local economic
development and employment, and methods proposed to accomplish
the work.
The first project is a 15,000 acre
parcel near the town of Mineral. Walker Brothers, a thinning
contractor, thinned 200 acres in this area in 2003 in preparation
for the larger project. The USFS paid $375 an acre for treatment.
Walker Brothers used Northern Arizona University's restoration
prescription of mosaics and 40-50 basal area. There were two
appeals on the 15,000 acre Mineral project by the Center
for Biological Diversity and White Mountain Conservation
League. The USFS settled them by altering the prescription
to take out trees over 16 inches in diameter. This had the
consequence of impacting the economic value of the sal. The
changes were valuable because they allowed the USFS to develop
a working relationship with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Mineral project was NEPA complete in August of 2002. NEPA
work took nearly three years because of larger the project
size, 15,000 acres.
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