Tonto National Forest has received additional funding to continue thinning projects in communities around the Payson area. The agency received $1.9 million to thin and pile overgrown and unhealthy Ponderosa pile stands.
"We’ve got a contract to thin up to 3,000 acres of maintenance thinning," said Carrie Templin, with the Tonto National Forest Service. "So that means thinning has occurred in that area before, but we’ve got to go back in and make sure things are not growing back that would be able to have a wildfire move through it; and then there’s 1200 acres that’s the first time we’ve thinned in those areas."
Templin said besides reducing the risk of a wildfire destroying homes, thinning improves wildlife habitat as well as watershed and rangeland conditions. She did not say how long it will take to complete.
