The Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) has been created to accelerate an ambitious restoration program to improve and sustain watershed health, improve wildlife habitat, conserve biodiversity, protect old-growth, reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildland fire and promote the reintroduction of natural fire, and restore natural forest structure and function so that forests are more resilient to climate change.

On a scale never attempted before, the 4FRI spans 2.4-million-acres on the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab and Tonto national forests. Appropriately-scaled business and industry will play a key role in this effort by harvesting, processing, and selling wood products. This will reduce treatment costs and provide restoration-based work opportunities that will create jobs.

Ponderosa pine forest stretches almost continuously from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, across the Mogollon Rim, to the White Mountains in eastern Arizona. Unfortunately, these forests have been degraded by unsustainable historical land uses and fire exclusion. The result is overgrown forests with thin, unhealthy trees and the threat of unnaturally severe wildfire.

The vision of 4FRI is restored forest ecosystems that support natural fire regimes, functioning populations of native plants and animals, and forests that pose little threat of destructive wildfire to thriving forest communities, as well as support sustainable forest industries that strengthen local economies while conserving natural resources and aesthetic values.