The Four Forest Initiative is an effort to restore the ponderosa pines in Arizona, Navajo County Governmental Affairs Director Hunter Moore explained at the Sept. 27 Snowflake Town Council meeting.

“It is a collaborative effort by a wide variety of stakeholders in government, education, science, industry and the environmental community,” said Moore, to restore the forest ecosystems on portions of the Coconino, Kaibab, Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests, and cover the area from the Grand Canyon to New Mexico.

“This is an effort to correct the mismanagement of the forests that caused those catastrophic wildfires,” said Moore referring to the Wallow and Rodeo-Chedeski fires. He noted that the vision is to reach sustainability and reintroduce industry to the forests at landscape scale.

Moore explained that this work has been underway for three to four years, stating, “It is not the only solution, but it is a very good one. It is not our tax dollars, it’s an effort to put industry back in the forest.

“What is exciting about it is we are bringing the environmental industry to the table and they realize this has to happen,” Moore continued. “I think this will impact our region somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 to 600 jobs in the region,” will inject $700 million into northeastern Arizona’s economy annually. “The impact could be very significant.”

Moore told the council that a request for proposals went out this summer and they have received several responses. He said he felt it is the responsibility of Navajo, Gila, Apache, Greenlee, Graham and Coconino counties to push for a bidder that will come through on its business plan, explaining that they are lobbying to make sure that a good look is taken at each proposal to make sure that the plan will work.

“We’re anticipating that sometime late fall or the turn of the year the award will be given, and work will start within a year or two cutting trees and thinning the forest in a strategic way so high risk areas for forest fire will be treated,” said Moore.

“There is a very large collaborative. We feel like it’s a very good project.”