WSP04775

• File Number: 8042.A
• Description: Section "D" General Studies, Other States
• State: AZ
• Date: 7/22/1963
• Author: Joseph F Arnold
• Title: Arizona Watershed Program-Objectives, Genesis, and Citizen Participation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

ThinninQ' of PonderaPine Forests

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Open stands of virgin ponderosa pine are the best source of Arizona's high-
value commercial saw-log timber (Figure 3). But continued production of
high quality timber require s the thinning and pruning of thousands of cut-over
acres now choked with dense stands of young trees making little growth (Fig-
ure 4).

Aimed at increasing the growth and quality of timber, increasing the produc-
tion of forage and browse, improving the forest for recreation, and producing
more water; the major management objective of the Arizona Watershed Pro-
gram is to thin these over-stocked stands of pine (Figure 5). A few thousand
acres of pine thickets have been thinned on the Coconino National Forest's
VIet Beaver Creek pilot watershed project and on the Fort Apache Indian
Reservation.

"

Figure 3. Open stands of virgin ponderosa pine produce multi-
ple values in terms of timber, forage, water and
suitable conditions for camping and hunting. Malay
Gap, San Carlos Indian Reservation.

Figure 4, Overstocked stands of sapling pines produce no saw-
logs or forage: intercept snow and rain; are unsuitable
for camping and hunting; and may be totally destroyed
by wildfire.

Figure 5,

A thinned stand of ponderosa pine restores multiple
values, Beaver Creek, Coconino National Forest.

To protect their pine forest from the devastation of June wildfires, foresters
on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation apply pre scribed burning during late
fall and early winter to reduce excessive forest debris and fuels,

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