Protection of green cedars? FS

[coues32]

With alot of country in the Tonto getting choked off with cedars, has there been any effort from conservation groups to get some control or relief for game?

Looking at some reports a mature cedar can soak up 30 to 50 gallons of water a day. 

Forest service waits for a fire or pays a company to come in and clear fire break areas. Both cost a ton of money. 

Think FS could allow the cutting of some live trees to help out thinning,  would also help people that burn firewood to heat their home. It is tough to find legal trees to cut.

 

Will it take a lawsuit from someone like SRP for water rights to get any action?

[Northern Pintail]

There are juniper removal / grassland restorations all over the state.   The tonto included.   Maybe work with your local GF wm and get some projects going. 

[PRDATR]

1 hour ago, Northern Pintail said:

There are juniper removal / grassland restorations all over the state.   The tonto included.   Maybe work with your local GF wm and get some projects going. 

We need all kinds of habitat for sure. I just would like to see any clearing done without leaving all the branches left scattered like what was done decades ago in 23 a few miles from the airstrip west of Young.

[wildwoody]

Thats the way they always do live cutting, 10" in diameter and brush left no higher then 2' high, sucks to walk in.

[Saguaro]

Thinning is one thing.  Push downs or munching them up is another.  I worked for the FS and City of Flagstaff as a seasonal fire fighter.  We would thin a lot of acres when I was with the City.  When I started in 1999, It was the first program of its kind and it was called the Fuel Management Crew and it was part of the City Fire Department.  There were about 10-12 men and women, I can’t remember the exact number.  We would load up with about 6 chain saws and switch off with each other cutting and piling all day long.  That was over 20 years ago and I sometimes go back to those areas we thinned and they are the best looking forest around.  We took a lot of pride in it. When we cut up a Dog Hair Thickett, we would cut the stumps almost flush with the ground, pile up all the limbs in the nicest pile so they would burn down to nothing.  After the control burn the next year, the place looked amazing.

I have problems with munching up 300 acres of Junipers indiscriminately.   I can tell stories about areas near Winslow, Heber and Holbrook where I would go to find sheds in the past and since they munched it up, no sheds to be found. Not many tracks either.  No doubt it does great for cattle, but I think game isn’t as impressed.

[coues32]

1 hour ago, Saguaro said:

Thinning is one thing.  Push downs or munching them up is another.  I worked for the FS and City of Flagstaff as a seasonal fire fighter.  We would thin a lot of acres when I was with the City.  When I started in 1999, It was the first program of its kind and it was called the Fuel Management Crew and it was part of the City Fire Department.  There were about 10-12 men and women, I can’t remember the exact number.  We would load up with about 6 chain saws and switch off with each other cutting and piling all day long.  That was over 20 years ago and I sometimes go back to those areas we thinned and they are the best looking forest around.  We took a lot of pride in it. When we cut up a Dog Hair Thickett, we would cut the stumps almost flush with the ground, pile up all the limbs in the nicest pile so they would burn down to nothing.  After the control burn the next year, the place looked amazing.

I have problems with munching up 300 acres of Junipers indiscriminately.   I can tell stories about areas near Winslow, Heber and Holbrook where I would go to find sheds in the past and since they munched it up, no sheds to be found. Not many tracks either.  No doubt it does great for cattle, but I think game isn’t as impressed.

Talking more of letting people cut some live trees for firewood use, tough to find legal trees to cut in the tonto.

The last fire break clearing south of payson(gun range rd) had 6 or more excavators with mulching heads. Those trees could have been used for heating homes . I'm sure we payed a pretty penny for that California company to clear it.

 

Soon as you hit the reservation line out of show low you can see a good looking forest. Cant walk thru the jungle of cedars north of rye,  wasn't like that when was a kid. 

[PRDATR]

24 minutes ago, coues32 said:

 

The last fire break clearing south of payson(gun range rd) had 6 or more excavators with mulching heads. Those trees could have been used for heating homes . I'm sure we payed a pretty penny for that California company to clear it.

 

 

I remember driving through there and feeling a bit pissed when I first saw it.