Phoenix Water Utility Involved In Planned Forest Restoration Work Near Payson knau.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from knau.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
What we can learn from devastating forest fires
This April 30, 2018, photo provided by the U.S. Forest Service shows a helicopter fighting a wildfire in north-central Arizona. (U.S. Forest Service, Coconino National Forest via AP)
Over the past 10 years, we have watched as large wildfires ravaged the watershed in and around the Salt and Verde rivers. The devastation proves one important fact that must be addressed now – our forests are unhealthy.
SRP manages the water supply for much of the Valley – most of which comes from 8.3 million acres of land in northern Arizona. Snowfall and rain provide the water that travels through the watershed into SRP reservoirs, which is then delivered to homes and businesses via canals.
A groundbreaking, high-tech research project could not only save the watershed of the C.C. Cragin Reservoir â but boost the odds forest restoration projects can save forested communities like Payson and Show Low from the next megafire.
The $198,000 project involves use of remote-sensing LiDAR systems to figure out how many trees of what types and sizes timber companies can harvest to restore a healthy forest. Moreover, the tool can help answer a host of questions from watershed yields to the mysterious movements of Mexican spotted owls.
âThere are almost endless applications of how we can use this data to inform our understanding of forest structure, wildlife, watersheds, wildfires â you name it,â said lead researcher Elvy Barton, who is both a researcher for Salt River Project and an adjunct faculty member at Northern Arizona Universityâs Ecological Research Institute.