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White Mountain Stewardship PojectLocation: Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, East-Central ArizonaContact: Steve Campbell, Navajo County Director, 928-524-6271 Elaine J. Zieroth, Forest Supervisor of Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, 928-333-6300 Project Stage: Active The White Mountain Stewardship Contract (WMSC) is the first long term stewardship contract in the country. This project has taken difficult challenges faced by forest managers nation wide and turned them into positive outcomes for the local community, forest health, new industry, and fuels reduction objectives. Not an easy task to accomplish, not without problems, and certainly not something that happens over night. The WMSC was awarded in 2004 with a plan of thinning 150,000 acres of forest in wildland urban interface areas (WUI) over a 10 year period. The main objective is to reduce the hazards of large wildfires near communities by thinning overstocked forests. This project is unique in that through wanting to accomplish an important forest management goal, other very important community and forest health issues were also made priorities. Local contractors were awarded the stewardship contract and encouraged to partner with local businesses. With a guarantee of 10 years of wood supply, and several grants awarded to businesses that focused on biomass usage, new and existing businesses arose. These businesses included a small log mill, an increase in the size of the pellet mill, a bioenergy plant, and a molding mill. By using local resources and encouraging new local industry, the local economy and employment opportunities improved. By creating an infrastructure of businesses that use small diameter timber the hope is that the project will help to pay for itself or at least reduce the cost to the government. The contractor subtracts the amount made from larger merchantable trees and smaller less valuable trees and vegetation (biomass) from the cost of the contract. Because forest thinning is very expensive, reducing the cost to enable more acres to be completed is a goal that is trying to be reached by all forest managers. Another major hurdle often faced when doing any sort of forest management is getting the support of the local community and environmental groups. Without the support of these groups many projects head straight to the courtroom. This project worked with the community and environmental groups gaining the support of all stakeholders and allowing for a much smoother process when preparing the legal documents to get the project approved. This project has had its struggles and still faces changes and problems that require a great deal of flexibility and strong leadership but despite its downfalls many aspects of this projects make it a great model to explore solutions for similar problems faced in the Sierra Nevada and nationwide. For more about: The White Mountain Stewardship Contract, Abrams and Burns 2007 Case study, Partnership Resource Center Biomass harvesting guidelines, Forest Guild 2009 report |
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