Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management

Jeff Whitney, Arizona State Forester

The Power of Partnership Agreements

Arizona Overview

DFFM.az.gov

• Arizona’s a land of many ecosystems

• Land Ownership: 42% federal, 12.7% State Trust, 27% tribal, 18% private

• Socio-Economic Diversity

• Partnerships are essential to DFFM’s Mission

Arizona Partnerships Overview

DFFM.az.gov

• DFFM leverages a variety of landscape scale partnerships. • Crew Projects / Participating Agreements• Fire Suppression Coordination – as well as coordination of Community Wildfire Protection Planning (CWPP)• Coordinated Forest Health Aerial Detection Surveys – and coordination of Farm Bill insect and disease

treatment priorities.• Work with RMRS on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest (along with integration of RMRS fire modeling into

AZ Risk assessment portal)• Coordinated fuels mitigation funding to support Communities-At-Risk – working with both USFS and BLM• Competitive Landscape Scale Restoration projects (LSR)• Work by local collaboratives such as the Prescott Area WUI Commission (PAWUIC), and Greater Flagstaff

Forest Partnerships (GFFP), and several others.• A few larger efforts include:

• The Arizona Conservation Partnership (local, state, federal)• The 4 Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI)• The Two Chiefs / Prescott Basin project (USFS/NRCS)• Good Neighbor Authority agreements and projects – with USFS, and soon with BLM• Our new DFFM/ NRCS / USFS partnership efforts (EQIP/GNA)• The Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project• The Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape effort (DOD, DOI, USFS, State)

Clear Creek Pines Project 2016-2017

• 2nd DFFM EQIP project funded in the state

• Large private land stewardship project• 410 acres of logging

• 410 acres of biomass removal (1st EQIP RX burn)

• 2 miles of road work

• 2019-2020 wildlife drinkers & RX burn planned

• Training opportunity for 9 staff new to EQIP/Forestry

• Arch surveys

• Forest inventory

• Marking

• Stand layout

• Harvest operation

DFFM.az.gov

NRCS Funded Project

DFFM and NRCS• Steps to success:

– Promptly hired or reassigned staff – Leveraged NRCS funding with DFFM and FSP to create 4 new service

foresters– Agreement with the NRCS mirrors USFS agreement but allows flexibility

to program eligibilities– Agreed to provide technical assistance in forestry, riparian, watershed,

archeology – All staff meeting between NRCS and DFFM

• Challenges– Practice specifications needed to be tailored to AZ in accordance with

current science– We recognized NRCS does not have a project approver for forestry

practices

DFFM.az.gov

Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project Overview

DFFM.az.gov

• In November 2012, Flagstaff voters approved a $10M bond to support the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project – a partnership effort between the State, City and Coconino National Forest to help reduce the risk of devastating wildfire and post-fire flooding in the Rio de Flag and Lake Mary watersheds.

• This initiative has now become known as the “Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project.” This is one of only a handful of examples in the country where forest restoration work on the National Forests is being funded by a municipality, and the only known instance where such an effort is funded from municipal bonds.

• The effort includes treating areas approved by NEPA decisions and accelerating treatments currently being analyzed under the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI). Treatments began soon after the bond passed with already approved NEPA on Forest Service land, and on City and state lands.

Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project

• Results– The FWPP treatment has created a forest structure that is resilient to

high severity wildfire, and allowed firefighters to respond, engage, and manage the wildfire in a safe and effective manner.

– Total project size : Approximately 15,300 acres [includes a patchwork of completed NEPA from other projects , new NEPA (10,500 ac), and AZ State lands (3,000)]

• Challenges– Public perception

– NEPA

– Funding and staff capacity

DFFM.az.gov

Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape Partnership Overview

DFFM.az.gov

Sentinel Landscapes are working or natural lands important to the Nation’s defense mission – places where preserving the working and rural character of key landscapes strengthens the economies of farms, ranches, and forests; conserves habitat and natural resources; and protects vital test and training missions conducted on those military installations that anchor such landscapes.

Within the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape, the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and DoD are working with the Arizona Land and Water Trust, the Arizona Department of Forestry, and more than 40 other local, state, and federal partners to discourage incompatible land development, preserve native grassland and working ranches, and ensure the availability of scarce groundwater resources for the entire region. Priorities include grassland and wetland restoration efforts around the Babocomari and Upper San Pedro Rivers – key habitat for the Chiricahua leopard frog, yellow-billed cuckoo, southwestern flycatcher, ocelot, and jaguar; implementation of the State of Arizona's Forest Action Plan; and conservation of nearly 5,000 acres of working ranchlands, all of which will buffer and protect Fort Huachuca's mission as the leading unmanned aircraft system training center in the western United States.

Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape Partnership Overview

DFFM.az.gov

Summary

DFFM.az.gov

• All Lands Vision

• Shared Outcomes

• Ongoing Communications

Thank You

Contact information:

Jeff Whitney, State Forester602-771-1400 jwhitney@dffm.az.gov

dffm.az.gov

DFFM.az.gov