In 2008, the Coronado National Forest in southeastern Arizona invited the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) to collaborate on the Pinaleño Ecosystem Restoration Project. Together with the forest’s silviculturist, the ERI initiated a forest restoration demonstration project in a dry mixed-conifer stand within the Pinaleño Mountains. Prior to completion of the restoration demo, the Frye Fire burned almost 50,000 acres across the Pinaleño Mountains. In a rapid assessment report for the Coronado NF, the ERI summarized data collected at two demo sites in 2018. The partial treatment and wildfire gave us the opportunity to ask 1) How did wildfire change forest conditions in the untreated unit?; 2) How did the mechanical treatments and subsequent Frye Fire change forest structure?; and 3) How was wildfire severity distributed across the Pinaleño Mountains?
The report briefly summarizes the early work in 2008–2009, but focuses on results from the mechanical treatments initiated in 2016–2017, and more opportunistically, the fire effects of the Frye Fire in 2017.
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