County officials work to make forest issues known

Whiting, along with other members of the Board of Supervisors and Assistant County Manager for Economic Development Paul Watson, has been meeting with local, state and federal leaders, including members of the Forest Service, to educate them on forest restoration.

Whiting and Watson made presentations at the April 7 Taylor Town Council meeting, the April 12 Snowflake Town Council meeting and the April 14 Real AZ meeting, and will be providing an update on what is going on regarding forest restoration to the Holbrook City Council.

Whiting noted there has already been a wildfire in the county this year, stating, “The fire season is starting early.”

Whiting serves on several committees, including the board of the Eastern Arizona Counties Association, which works on issues the counties have in common, and as chairman of the Natural Resources Working Group, a group of stakeholders in the local forests.

He is also co-chairman of 4FRI, a group of four national forests in Arizona that are collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders, including environmentalists, industry representatives, the U.S. Forest Service and local governments that are working on forest restoration in the Kaibab, Coconino, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests.

The overall goal is to “restore the structure, pattern, composition and health of fire-adapted ponderosa pine ecosystems; reduce fuels and the risk of unnaturally severe wildfires; and provide for wildlife and plant diversity,” according to the Forest Service website.

4FRI began on the west side of the state, but that area doesn’t have the industry there is in Navajo and Apache counties.

“There’s just not enough wood supply that’s getting to the industries here,” said Whiting. “They’re not giving any contracts here, but most of the industry is here.

“Today we have zero wood,” he continued, noting the concern that the industries will be gone from the east side before they get the product.

Whiting explained that there are industries here that work well together because they use different parts of the tree and can share the product, but it is getting more difficult to keep these industries going.

Randy Nicoll of Arizona Log & Timberworks in Eagar has two sawmills, one in Eagar for small diameter logs and one in Nutrioso that takes the large diameter logs. At present the firm is able to run only one mill at a time, while it used to have enough material to run both at the same time.

Arizona Log & Timberworks has a pole peeling operation that began with the White Mountain Stewardship contract. “We saw the future being bright,” said Nicoll. The firm expanded and put in a pressure treating facility, which preserves the wood so it lasts longer.

“In the last year and a half we have gotten hardly anything from the Forest Service,” said Nicoll, noting that they have struggled the last three years since the stewardship was completed.

“After the Wallow fire we couldn’t get anything but burnt wood, so we did firewood. Now we’re running out of that.

“It doesn’t seam like it’s going to be a long, sustainable industry either,” said Nicoll, who has cut his staff to five fulltime employees and expressed concern that they would not be able to keep them because the work is sporadic due to the lack of wood.

In response to a question posed by Whiting, Nicoll said, “I turn down sales more often than I have a problem with sales.”

Nicoll has passed the testing to make guard rail posts, but has not completed the next step, which is approval from the Arizona Department of Transportation due to lack of materials. In Arizona alone, the firm could sell 30,000 to more than 100,000 guard rail posts, but it doesn’t have the wood. He expressed concern about being able to keep his business going.

Steve Reidhead of Tri Star Logging and Novo Star, said, “Right now we’re probably as busy as we can be.” He explained that they have partnered with Worsleys, who have Novo Power and Novo Star. Tri Star is moving 53 loads of a combination of biomass and logs daily. They are completely mechanized, and shipped three rail cars in the last two to three weeks. The Wallow fire took everything out of their wood basket, said Reidhead noting, “That’s why the tribe is very important.

“We’re actually growing. We’re pressing hard. The struggle is a very, very heavy debt load.

“We’re working on it, we just keep trying something new.

“We don’t just log…we do a lot of thinning,” said Reidhead, noting that they do thinning for ranchers, and after thinning wildflowers begin to grow and grass comes back.”

“You see, for me, it’s easy to want to get behind these guys. These guys are risking it all,” said Whiting.

Brad Worsley of Novo Power and Novo Star reported that they had Senators McCain and Jeff Flake at their facility for most of a day approximately two weeks ago. Nova Power employs 38, not including drivers, and another 20 at Novo Star. They burn 200,000 tons of material a year. They have a payroll of almost $300,000 a month, “so these people are making good living wages,” said Worsley, noting that the impact goes well beyond the forest.

Worsley said that what the Forest Service is burning in a controlled burn is approximately what they burn in a day, explaining that what Reidheads do is act like a low intensity fire.

“What we’re doing is about restoring forest health and the watershed,” said Worsley. “We’re not here because of the payroll, we’re here because all the people that live in the Valley need water and need the recreation in the forest.

“If we burn down our forest it’s a big impact. “No one wins in these high intensity fires.

“Jason has helped get a lot of people’s attention so we can stay working,” said Worsley.

“One of the worst things we can have is a forest fire,” said Whiting, noting the past Rodeo/Chediski and Wallow fires.

Whiting, Watson and others have met with local, state and federal officials to explain the problems and offer solutions. They met with Senators Flake and McCain in Washington, D.C., to give them a better understanding of the situation.

The forest issues are not just a threat to forest restoration, but also to watersheds, because the wildfire causes soil erosion and sludge goes into the reservoirs when it rains after the fire, so other stakeholders such as the Salt River Project have gotten involved.

Whiting showed pictures of what an overgrown forest looks like and what it looks like after restoration.

The forest density is not healthy for the forest or the animals, explained Whiting, but within two years of a forest fire the grass is growing and stabilizing the functioning ecosystem.

“If we don’t do some restoration ourselves, Mother Nature will come in and take care of it herself,” said Whiting.

“There are multiple reasons why this matters to our area,” he continued, noting that the project will restore grasslands, revamp the logging industry and provide sawmill jobs. They are working on a number of grants with Apache County.

They also find that if the cedar trees are removed, the grass begins to grow.

The White Mountain Stewardship Contract attracted new industry, Whiting said, but that has ended.

“The problem is there’s industry here that doesn’t have timber,” he said, adding that he has spent a lot of time working with local stakeholders trying to get the timber out to these people to protect our families and our homes.

The 4FRI contract, the largest landscape scale contract in Forest Service history, is in place. Whiting explained that 4FRI is taking place in the Coconino Forest on the west side, where there is little industry. When statistics are reported, it is the industry on the east side, which doesn’t have adequate wood.

“We truly are able to go in now and use every aspect of the tree, and make it a safer forest for ourselves,” said Whiting. He gave a lot of credit to the Reidhead family, which has purchased equipment for the future.

Members of Real AZ toured the biomass power plant and the new mill April 14.

“Modern day equipment is pretty amazing,” said Whiting.

Watson spoke on the accomplishments they have had to date in meeting with state and federal leaders. He showed a video of Senator Flake talking to Chief Thomas Tidwell of U.S. Forest Service, who said that 4FRI was going well, which Whiting referred to as an “air sandwich.” Flake pressed him and they later met, and Flake used the specific bullet points that industry people had come up with, and he gave real solutions to the problem.

“Because of the education given to the leaders, the federal government has agreed to release 30,000 to 40,000 acres each year, even though last year it only released approximately 10,000 acres. The west side doesn’t have the industry yet, we have the industry over here,” said Whiting. “The numbers just released show that over five years we will get over 20,000 acres.

“We don’t want to sustain the industry, their businesses are established so they can grow. For everything we lose with the loggers in the way of economy, if you put numbers where tourism is, if we lose forest around us, it’s a huge hit for our area.”

Snowflake Councilman Byron Lewis thanked Whiting for the effort they have been making at the national level. “Please continue to do that,” he said.

“Thank you for doing what you’re doing,” said Taylor Vice Mayor Shawn Palmer. “This is a real serious topic and a serious situation. I would encourage you to keep up your efforts and I would encourage you to keep identifying the ‘air sandwiches,’ because like you said, they aren’t filling you.” He further noted how just a log truck has a huge impact in a positive way, because they need maintenance, “The ripple effect is huge.”

“It’s not just about logging and their jobs, our region needs to be behind this,” said Whiting. “Being informed on it is really important.”