Future Forests - Forest Restoration on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest

Future Forest is charged with managing the treatment (thinning) of approximately 5,000 to 25,000 acres of forest land per year over the 10-year term of the contract.

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Future Forests - Forest Restoration on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest

Caption 1: Apache-Sitgreaves plot before thinning.

Caption 2: Apache-Sitgreaves plot after thinning.

PROJECT RESULTS:
PowerPoint 1

PowerPoint 2 - this one may take some time to download

WHO WE ARE Future Forest LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) is made up of
WB Contracting, Inc. based in Eagar, Arizona
Owners - Dwayne Walker, Ricky Walker, Dale Walker
WB Contracting, Inc. has been performing forest thinning work in the Southwest for 18+ years. They specialize in forest landscape restoration including thinning, piling, chipping, transporting and marketing of wood fiber, seeding, water barring, and contour falling.

Forest Energy Corp based in Show Low, Arizona
Owner - Robert Davis
Forest Energy Corp of Show Low, AZ, in operation 13+ years, utilizes the residues from thinning to produce densified wood pellets used for fuel that provides heat to over 20,000 residences and commercial facilities in the Southwest. Also produced is animal bedding, kitty litter, absorbents and a 5lb densified wood log for use in wood stoves and campfires.

Active, working members of Future Forest are Dwayne Walker and Rob Davis.

WHAT WE DO In August of 2004, the USDA Forest Service awarded Future Forest LLC the White Mountain Stewardship Contract on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona. Under this contract, Future Forest is charged with managing the treatment (thinning) of approximately 5,000 to 25,000 acres of forest land per year over the 10-year term of the contract.

Future Forest contracts with experienced logging companies such as WB Contracting, Inc., its primary subcontractor, to thin the forests; then markets the wood to local businesses, such as Forest Energy Corp, for processing. As steward of the Apache-Sitgreaves Forest lands, Future Forest is working closely with the Forest Service to create healthier forests, reduce the threat of wildfires to our communities and help develop new markets for wood residue to improve our local economies.

WHITE MOUNTAIN STEWARDSHIP CONTRACT
The contract is the first, large, 10-year stewardship contract in the nation and is significant due to its emphasis on large-scale forest restoration activities that result in healthier forests, enhanced rural development, and the utilization of previously unmarketable small diameter trees. It facilitates the development of a woods products industry better suited to market the excessive number of small-diameter and some larger trees on the national forests. Such trees have been removed in the past by a series of smaller thinning contracts and the resultant slash or woody debris was usually treated by burning. The new contract will result in the smaller trees being used for various uses such as in a power-generation, lumber and manufacturing of wood pellets. This would reduce the need to burn such material in the forest, and result in a cost reduction to the taxpayer.

The forests of the Southwest are in dire need of thinning, and this stewardship contract will provide a much needed mechanism by which large tracts of land can be treated resulting in increased protection of communities and improved health of our precious forests. A stewardship contract allows for the costs of removal of small trees, residue and slash to be exchanged for the value of the excess trees that are removed. The goal is to find uses for all the wood fiber and by doing so, reduce the amount of wood burned in the forest, reduce treatment costs and provide jobs in the local communities.

The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, which comprises a significant portion of the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in North America, faces large-scale threats to communities from large wildland fires. The suppression of fire over the last hundred years contributed to the development of very dense forests. These forests that once were characterized by 20 to 60 trees per acre now average over 400 trees per acre, which makes the forest vulnerable to intense wildfire and insect damage.

Most of the lands treated under this contract are in the wildland-urban interface and we hope to reduce the number of trees closer to what grew there historically when fire managed the forests, said Elaine Zieroth, Apache-Sitgreaves NFs forest supervisor. We have to reduce the number of trees across the forests on a large scale so that the threat of catastrophic fire will be minimized, and the remaining trees can better resist drought and insects".

Additional Information

Phone: (928) 367-0057

Web Site: http://smallwoodnews.com/Docs/PowerPoint/FutureForestsWhiteMountain.ppt

Email: Click here to contact via email.

Category: Forestry>Success Stories

Region: Arizona

Ad Running: 9/18/2008-10/18/2010

Ad Posted: 9/18/2008 7:50:36 PM

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