The Globe Ranger District is developing a five-year plan to reintroduce native plants and ponderosa pine trees in a 551-acre section of the Telegraph Fire burn scar to reestablish habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, listed as a species of concern in Arizona. The 2021 fire burned through 180,757 acres, reducing the owls’ nesting source of ponderosa pine and protected activity centers.

Globe’s reforestation project supports forest restoration, a foundational component of the Tonto National Forest Land Management Plan. Reforestation aids the environment by accelerating the re-establishment of healthy forests by regrowing the forest canopy and preserving biodiversity within the ecosystem. 

Spearheading the project is Jamie Wages, wildfire crisis strategy project manager on the Globe Ranger District. The project timeline includes ordering seedlings from Idaho’s Lucky Peak Nursery in fiscal year 2025. This nursery, actually a tree farm, grows trees to be replanted in forests in the Western United States. Wages also has reached out to colleagues on the Payson Ranger District, as staff there already have collected ponderosa pine seed cones. 

Planting would begin sometime between spring and fall 2026, depending on weather. The location would be seven miles south of Globe, on the Madera Peak and Pioneer Pass side within the Telegraph Fire burn scar. 

“We will be hoping for a wetter winter prior to planting seedlings to give them the best chance of survival,” Wages said. 

As for funding, the district will seek money from the Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees (REPLANT) Act of 2021. Passage of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included the REPLANT Act, which removes the cap on the Reforestation Trust Fund, indefinitely increasing annual funding for reforestation from $30 million to $140 million or more. 

The REPLANT Act is helping the Forest Service plant 1.2 billion trees and create nearly 49,000 jobs over the next 10 years to address the growing backlog of nearly two million acres of national forest land in need of reforestation. 

“The REPLANT Act presents the Forest Service with a bold opportunity to integrate new approaches to reforestation in response to today’s challenges,” Wages said. “This includes changes in fire intensity and frequency, climate change, invasive species, and loss of biodiversity. 

“We’ve also had discussions with the San Carlos Apache Tribe regarding the possibility of them ordering ponderosa pine seedlings through a 638 agreement with the Forest Service,” Wages said. “We continue to brainstorm with tribes about who might plant the seedlings and how that will be done. Ultimately, replanting these seedlings is an opportunity to see if we can increase other native species on the lands and expand the project within the burn scar.” 

A 638 agreement is a tool to fund work identified as a priority under an approved Tribal Forest Protection Act (TFPA) proposal by a Tribe for work on National Forest System land. The work mutually benefits Tribes and the Forest Service. 

The restoration project supports the San Carlos Apache Tribal Forest Protection landscape, one of 21 landscapes the Forest Service recently identified as part of the agency’s 10-year strategy for confronting the wildfire crisis. 

Work on this landscape will reduce wildfire exposure to communities within the San Carlos and Fort Apache Reservations. Landscape treatments will reintroduce wildland fire into fire-adapted ecosystems in a culturally sensitive way while emphasizing sustainable uses of cultural forest products, including clean water, traditional medicinal plant cover, firewood, and culturally significant food sources such as acorns, berries, and wildlife. Work will also foster public understanding and sharing of culturally significant information to better guide land management decisions. 

Visit the Tonto website to learn more about the forest’s work on the San Carlos Apache Tribal Forest Protection landscape as well as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative landscape.