The Coconino County Board of Supervisors heard plans Tuesday for forest restoration work west of the San Francisco Peaks to lessen the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
The Upper Rio de Flag Forest Restoration Plan includes six projects on twelve thousand acres, roughly half of the watershed. The area will be mechanically thinned followed by prescribed burns over the next three to five years.
Coconino National Forest district ranger Matt McGrath said at the meeting that fire belongs on the landscape, "but we’ve changed the environment significantly over the last 100 years, and what we’re trying to do is get to more natural conditions."
Coconino National Forest anticipates spending $11 million on the plan this year, plus an additional $2 million contributed by the Coconino County Flood Control District, pending its approval.
The announcement comes on the heels of two studies that show a post-wildfire flood along the Rio de Flag in Flagstaff could incur costs as high as $2.8 billion.
