The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the U.S. Forest Service will collaborate on landscape restoration projects in three national forests and the tribal lands that border them.
The San Carlos Apache Tribal Forest Protection Act project, authorized by Congress in 2004 allows the 15,000-member tribe to create restoration partnerships with the Forest Service to protect areas both on tribal lands and bordering the Apache-Sitgreaves, Tonto and Coronado national forests.
It’s just one project in a long-term strategy to confront a growing wildfire crisis in the West with a partnership that includes the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, tribes, states, local communities and private entities.
The 1.8 million-acre reservation, located about 80 miles east of Phoenix, has seen its share of fires in recent years, including the Mescal Fire in 2021, which charred more than 70,000 acres both inside and out of tribal lands. Nearby fires such as the 2021 Telegraph Fire also have concerned the tribe because it and other fires in the area threaten sacred and culturally important sites.
San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler said in a statement that he looked forward to working with the Forest Service to protect the tribe’s forests from wildfires, using sustainable and culturally sensitive methods.
“These projects will help ensure that the environment that sustained our ancestors will continue to flourish for generations to come,” he said. San Carlos’s lands range from alpine meadows and grassland to desert.
The San Carlos Apache Tribal project is part of 21 regions known as landscapes that the Forest Service is focusing on as part of a 10-year strategy to address the west’s wildfire crisis.
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Work will include prescribed fires, sustainable uses
The program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allots $24 million to the collaboration, according to a Forest Service release. The program is authorized by the Tribal Forest Protection Act, a 2004 federal law that allows the Agriculture and Interior departments to enact tribally proposed stewardship or other projects on national forest or BLM lands adjacent to tribal lands to protect the areas from threats such as wildfires or diseases.
The treatment protocols include prescribed fire to help shift the ecosystem back to a more natural and historic vegetative state in a culturally sensitive way, the Forest Service said. The treatments will also support sustainable uses of cultural forest products, including clean water, traditional medicinal plants, firewood and culturally significant foods like acorns, berries and wildlife.The tribe has already started some projects, such as treating lands near the area known as the Highway Tanks in the Tonto National Forest and using advanced Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) imaging to better understand forest structures and volumes to develop management protocols.
Future projects will include Eagle Creek in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and the Peloncillo FireScape within the Coronado National Forest. Crews will also perform fuel reduction work, heritage surveys, pile burning operations and general range management.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small hailed the new agreement while visiting Phoenix on a tour of land management projects funded by the infrastructure law.
“Fire doesn’t know borders,” she told The Arizona Republic.
“These landscapes can have different ownership but it’s all one landscape,” she said. “These partnerships result in better stewardship of the land.”
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Forest Service initiative funds 4FRI programs
The Forest Service’s Good Neighbor Authority program would also invest $341,000 to fund two projects in Gila and Coconino counties, Torres Small said. The Greater Payson Hazardous Fuels project in Tonto National Forest and the South Zone Grassland Restoration project in the Kaibab National Forest aim to restore woodlands and grasslands, improve watersheds and develop wildlife watering facilities. The Payson fuel reduction project will also reduce wildfire risks to Payson and Star Valley.
The two projects are within the area of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, also known as 4FRI.
The Good Neighbor Authority is just one tool the Forest Service uses to collaborate with states, tribes and private interests in land and water management, Torres Small said.
“This speaks to the continuing work the Forest Service is doing to restore ecosystems, watersheds, species habitat and entire landscapes,” she said.
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @debkrol.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.
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