Globe Ranger District, San Carlos Apache Tribe plan consecutive prescribed fires to reduce forest fuels, protect communities and natural resources

Release Date: Apr 25, 2024

Tonto National Forest and San Carlos Apache Tribal fire managers are planning to begin two prescribed fire operations April 29 through May 10.

The 531-acre Roadside prescribed fire operation will occur within the Globe Ranger District’s Roadside burn block located 25 miles northeast of Globe, Arizona. Following the Roadside burn, Tonto fire crews, working in collaboration with the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s fire crews, will share resources and assist the Tribal Reserved Treaty Rights Land (RTRL) fire crews with a prescribed fire in the 1,967-acre Tanks Unit on reservation land adjacent to the Roadside burn block.

Both prescribed fire operations are part of the Highway Tanks fuel reduction project, a local, cross-boundary initiative between the Tonto National Forest and San Carlos Apache Tribe that have been in various planning phases for several years. Over the past 6 months Tribal Fire crews and Forest Service crews have been actively thinning and pretreating the area for fuels reduction.

Both prescribed fires fall under the overarching San Carlos Apache Tribal Forest Protection (TFPA) landscape that include the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coronado, Tonto National Forests and San Carlos Apache Tribal Lands. With additional funding under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the Forest Service identified the TFPA project area as one of 11 high-risk landscapes across the country selected for forest restoration and fuel reduction treatments.

The Tribal Forest Protection Act designation provides the ability to perform cross-boundary ecological restoration work and cooperative fuel management treatments across the entire landscape that include tribal ancestral lands and adjacent national forest system lands. The San Carlos TFPA landscape is part of the Forest Service’s 10-year strategy for confronting the wildfire crisis.

Prescribed fires modify post-treatment wildfire behavior and effects by reducing surface fuels (dead vegetation on the forest floor such as branches or needles from ponderosa pine and juniper) and ladder fuels (small- to medium-sized trees with low-lying branches as well as shrubs that can carry fire from the ground into the tree canopy). They reintroduce fire to a fire-dependent ecosystem and create a fire-safe buffer that helps protect communities from extreme wildfires.

These treatments improve plant and wildlife habitat to increase biodiversity for wildlife corridors, clean water, and flood control. They also help protect culturally significant native foods and plants, improve timber stands and recreational opportunities, and reduce the threat of invasive species on the landscape.

For the safety of the fire crews and the public, officials urge motorists to use extreme caution when driving on US Route 60 as fire specialists anticipate possible smoke impacts from mile marker 281 to mile marker 284. Burning will cease each day by 3 p.m. to reduce smoke impacts to US Route 60.

For additional information, contact the Globe Ranger Station located at 7680 S. Six Shooter Canyon Rd., Globe, Arizona 85501. Or phone the station at (928) 425-7189 Monday – Friday between 7:45 - 11:45 a.m. and 12:30 - 4:30 p.m.

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