People Restoring America’s Forests: A Report on the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program November 2011 Executive Summary Covering one-third of the United States, forests store and filter half the nation’s water supply; provide jobs to more than a million wood products workers; absorb 20% of U.S. carbon emissions; generate $14.8 billion of recreation revenue on Forest Service lands alone; and provide habitat for thousands of wildlife and plant species across the country. Yet this year’s record mega-fires, along with 8.6 million acres of standing, beetle-killed trees, are cause for concern in our forests. A century of fire suppression, spreading pests, sprawl, and climate change are proving a perfect storm of threats to the forests our nation depends on for water, recreation, wood and other services. In an effort to preserve those critical services, the bipartisan Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program was established in 2009 to foster collaborative, science-based restoration on priority forest landscapes across the U.S. The purpose of this pilot program is “…to encourage the collaborative, science-based ecosystem restoration of priority forest landscapes” (P.L. 111-11). CFLRP is unique among government programs in that it was established specifically to 1) create job stability, 2) achieve a reliable wood supply, 3) restore forest health, and 4) reduce the costs of fire suppression in overgrown forests. The ultimate goal of CFLRP is to collaboratively achieve improved forest benefits for people, water, and wildlife in a way that can be shared across the Forest Service’s 193 million acres, and beyond. As designed, the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program is unique among federal forest management programs: • Jobs: CFLRP generates jobs for forest workers, and provides raw materials for manufacturing, biomass-to-energy, and other wood-based products. These economic activities benefit local rural economies while improving forest health; • 10 year commitment: CFLRP commits restoration support for 10 years, which promotes local job security (given appropriations are sustained); • Reduces wildfire costs and risk: CFLRP reduces wildfire suppression costs by strategically treating the overgrown brush and trees that act as fuel for damaging mega-fires; • Competitive project selection: CFLRP uses a competitive process and a federally- chartered advisory panel to select the strongest proposals for investment; • Matching funding: CFLRP leverages federal funding against private and other government investments to stretch the federal dollar. To this end CFLRP is already getting results. The 10 projects funded in its first year have cumulatively: • Created and maintained 1,550 jobs; • Reduced mega-fire on an additional64,000 acres; • Produced 107 million board feet of timber; • Improved 66,000 acres of wildlife habitat; • Generated nearly $59 million of labor income; • Restored 28 miles of fish habitat; • Removed fuel for destructive mega-fires on • Enhanced clean water supplies by remediating 90,000 acres near communities; 163 miles of eroding roads. Given the early success of CFLR, it is no surprise interest in the program is high—in 2011 the number of applicant sites was 26 projects in 18 states. Additional funding to the $40 million level authorized by Congress—and recommended in the President’s Budget for FY 2012—will be needed to let other communities share in the success of this program. This report reviews the opportunity provided by CFLRP to restore America’s forests, at a time when the services provided by forests to people, water, and wildlife is under historic threat. Take a look and you’ll see why the people who work, live, and play in America’s forests are so enthusiastic about CFLR. ii | PEOPLE RESTORING AMERICA’S FORESTS: A REPORT ON THE COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PROGRAM “Working together is how we do business. We will continue to encourage greater public involvement to maintain and restore healthy landscapes. We not only are taking care of the ecosystem, but also supporting healthy, thriving communities through collaborative forest restoration.” — Tom Tidwell Forest Service Chief Strawberry Mountain in Oregon © Sam Beebe-Ecotrust/Flickr Creative Commons Overview of CFLRP The 10 selected CFLR projects were chosen for funding because of their proven ability to improve forest health and provide jobs and services for people. A by-the-numbers perspective: • The 10 CFLR projects will create and maintain • Most sites will decrease the cost of fire more than 3,700 jobs in 9 states and generate about suppression by approximately 50%;** $150 million of labor income over ten years;* • The scale of some projects will reach 500,000 acres; • Some CFLRP sites with strong markets for • The program will leverage nearly as much wood by-products estimate reducing their private and non-federal funding ($218.9 treatment costs by as much as $450 per acre; million) as it expects to expend in federal funding over 10 years ($244.8 million). But to achieve these outcomes, CFLRP needs sustained funding as authorized by Congress and recommended in the President’s Budget. CFLRP Funding History President’s Budget Request Appropriation Received FY 2010 n/a $10 million FY 2011 $40 million $25 million FY 2012 $40 million To be determined *All job estimates in this report use the Treatment for Restoration Ecological Analysis Tool (TREAT). **All fire suppression estimates in this report use the Risk and Cost Analysis oolsT Package (R-CAT). NOVEMBER 2011 | 1 Northeast Washington Lower Kootenai Forest Vision 2020 River Watershed Tapash Sustainable Southwestern Crown Forest Collaborative of the Continent Funding: $1.63M Funding: $1.03M Selway-Middle Fork Clearwater Funding: $1M Deschutes Collaborative Forest Funding: $500,000 Weiser-Little Salmon Headwaters Black Hills Klamath River Restoration National Forest and Community Protection Southern Blues Restoration Coalition Sage Steppe and Dry-Forest Restoration on the Modoc Plateau Lakeview Stewardship Landscape Burney-Hat Creek Basins Middle Fork of the American River White River National Forest Future Forest Initiative Pinyon-Juniper Partnership Amador-Calaveras Cornerstone Front Range Landscape Restoration Initiative Funding: $1M Dinkey Landscape Escalante Headwaters Uncompahgre Plateau Restoration Project Funding: $446,000 Funding: $829,900 Southwest Jemez Mountains Funding: $392,000 Zuni Mountain Four Forest Restoration Initiative Funding: $2M South Sacramento Mountains Restoration Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Funded and Applicant Sites 2 | PEOPLE RESTORING AMERICA’S FORESTS: A REPORT ON THE COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PROGRAM Appalachia Restoration Project Allegheny Highlands Cumberland River Fire Learning Network Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Grandfather Landscape Restoration of Restoration Project Ozark Highlands Land Between the Lakes Ecosystem Restoration Shortleaf-Bluestem Community Accelerating Longleaf Pine Restoration Funding: $1.17M Texas Longleaf Ridge Restoration Project Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration and Hazardous Fuels Reduction 2010 Selected Funded Sites (pages 4-23) 2011 Applicant Sites (pages 24-36) NOVEMBER 2011 | 3 Arizona | Four Forest Restoration Initiative The Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) is a collaborative effort to restore forest ecosystems on portions of the Coconino, Kaibab, Apache- Sitgreaves, and Tonto National Forests in northern Arizona. Our vision is to restore natural fire regimes, functioning populations of native plants and animals, and reduce the threat of destructive wildfire to thriving forest communities, in partnership with sustainable forest industries that strengthen local economies. Northern goshawk © Bruce D. Taubert Partners ■ Apache County ■ Arizona Forest Restoration Products ■ Arizona Game and Fish Department ■ Arizona State Forestry Division ■ Arizona Wildlife Federation ■ Center for Biological Diversity ■ Coconino Natural Resources Conservation District ■ Coconino County ■ Coconino Rural Environment Corps ■ Ecological Restoration Institute ■ Eastern Arizona Counties Association ■ Flagstaff Fire Department ■ Forest Energy Corporation ■ Gila County ■ Graham County ■ Grand Canyon Trust ■ Great Old Broads for Wilderness ■ Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership ■ Greenlee County ■ Mottek Consulting ■ National Wild Turkey Federation ■ Natural Resources Working Group ■ Navajo County ■ Northern Arizona Logging Association ■ Northern Arizona University Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis ■ Northern Arizona Wood Products Association ■ Pioneer Association ■ Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation ■ Sierra Club ■ Southwest Sustainable Forests Partnership ■ The Nature Conservancy ■ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ■ U.S. Forest Service ■ White Mountains Conservation League 4 | PEOPLE RESTORING AMERICA’S FORESTS: A REPORT ON THE COLLABORATIVE FOREST LANDSCAPE RESTORATION PROGRAM The Four Forest Restoration Initiative Kaibab National Forests starting in region. Together with a broad group of (4FRI) was created to accelerate 2012. The project will use a variety of stakeholders, including members of local, restoration while increasing watershed tools, including mechanical thinning and county and state governments, scientists, health and function, improving wildlife prescribed fire, to achieve landscape-scale environmental groups, ranchers habitat, conserving biodiversity, forest restoration. Expectations are to and industry representatives, forest protecting old-growth,