From the top of Limestone Ridge, 6,000 feet up, the scars of a massive wildfire on Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation in east central Arizona are still visible. As far as the eye can see are bare mountain ranges where century-old ponderosa pines once stood. A decade ago, the Rodeo-Chediski fire burned more than 270,000 acres and an estimated 80 million trees, leaving behind few pine trees to help seed the beginnings of a new forest. “There is no seed source out here for the tree to establish again, so one of the main things that we are doing is helping Mother Nature along by artificially getting trees out here,” says Daniel Keesay, field operations manager for the White Mountain Apache Tribe forestry department.Get the Story:
NRCS Helps with Reforestation Efforts on a Scarred Tribal Landscape (USDA Blog 6/18)
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