Accelerating Restoration - The Challenges and Successes of the Nation's Largest Collaborative Restoration Project.
Location
USU Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
https://www.restoringthewest.org/
Abstract
The 2.4 million acre Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) is the largest collaborative forest restoration project in the United States. The objective of 4FRI is to restore ecological resilience and function across 2.4 million acres of northern Arizona’s ponderosa pine forest and to attract appropriately sized industry to the region and to increase the pace and scale of our efforts to meet the objectives above.
Tackling this large of a project is challenging, as is defining and measuring what success is across the landscape. The talk will focus on various ways to define success (acres treated, meeting desired conditions, and outcomes) and where we are as a project to date with these various measures. Finally, the talk will look at challenges facing 4FRI including 110+ years of Forest Service tradition, how do we accelerate restoration with low value material and biomass, how do we accelerate the use fire across the landscape, how do we integrate monitoring into management and NEPA. For each of the topics, there will be a discussion of the each of these challenges, how are we getting to success with these challenges, and where there is more work to be done.
Accelerating Restoration - The Challenges and Successes of the Nation's Largest Collaborative Restoration Project.
USU Eccles Conference Center
The 2.4 million acre Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) is the largest collaborative forest restoration project in the United States. The objective of 4FRI is to restore ecological resilience and function across 2.4 million acres of northern Arizona’s ponderosa pine forest and to attract appropriately sized industry to the region and to increase the pace and scale of our efforts to meet the objectives above.
Tackling this large of a project is challenging, as is defining and measuring what success is across the landscape. The talk will focus on various ways to define success (acres treated, meeting desired conditions, and outcomes) and where we are as a project to date with these various measures. Finally, the talk will look at challenges facing 4FRI including 110+ years of Forest Service tradition, how do we accelerate restoration with low value material and biomass, how do we accelerate the use fire across the landscape, how do we integrate monitoring into management and NEPA. For each of the topics, there will be a discussion of the each of these challenges, how are we getting to success with these challenges, and where there is more work to be done.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/rtw/2017/Oct17/7
Comments
Dick Fleishman is the Operations Coordinator Four Forest Restoration Initiative, the largest forest restoration project in the history of the Forest Service. Prior to this position, Dick worked as a hydrologist, a pre-sale forester, a timber sale administrator, and in Forest planning on the Coconino National Forest. Dick has a Bachelor of Science in Forest Management, as well as a Master’s in Public Administration from Northern Arizona University. Dick may be contacted at dfleishman@fs.fed.us, or at 928 226-4687.