Forest crews near Flagstaff thin dead fuels to head off wildfire and flood damage

Crews in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff are clearing dead and downed wood across a stretch of forest on the San Francisco Peaks in an effort called the Leroux East Forest Restoration Project. The work targets roughly 600 acres this year within a larger 1,500-acre project area near Snowbowl Road, at a cost of about $4.2 million, and officials say it could prevent hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in wildfire and flood damage.

What exactly are crews doing out there?

The project isn’t traditional logging. Matt McGrath, the Coconino National Forest’s Flagstaff District Ranger, says the focus is removing dead and downed fuel from the forest floor rather than cutting down healthy, living trees. Officials specifically note the area’s aspens are being preserved, since keeping the natural landscape intact was a priority in planning. The idea is that less fuel on the ground means any future fire would burn less severely, move through faster, and be less likely to scorch the soil badly enough to trigger serious flooding afterward.

Why is flooding such a big concern here?

Coconino County has already lived through this cycle. Four years ago, the Tunnel and Pipeline wildfires destroyed dozens of structures in the area, and burned landscapes are especially prone to flash flooding afterward because scorched soil can’t absorb water the way healthy forest can. A Northern Arizona University study found that risk is still present, particularly in the Upper Rio de Flag watershed just north of Flagstaff. Board of Supervisors Chair Patrice Horstman said a major flood event there wouldn’t just threaten neighborhoods directly below the peaks — it could send water all the way into downtown Flagstaff. She cited estimates putting potential economic loss from such flooding between $500 million and $2.8 billion.

Who’s paying for this and who benefits?

The $4.2 million project is being framed by officials as an investment against a much larger potential loss. Beyond protecting life and property directly, Horstman said the mitigation work is also meant to demonstrate to insurance companies that the county and its residents are taking wildfire risk seriously — often described as being “Firewise” — with the hope that reduced risk translates into lower insurance premiums for homeowners in the area. Jay Smith, director of the Coconino County Flood Control District’s forest restoration efforts, said the project ultimately comes down to protecting the people who live nearby, adding that he sleeps better knowing the work is underway.

What happens once the work is finished?

Officials expect this phase of work to wrap up by the end of the year. Temporary access roads built for the project will be removed, and the wood cleared from the forest will be trucked down to Phoenix and other parts of Arizona. Officials say the changes on the ground should be subtle to the average visitor — the goal isn’t a visibly stripped forest, but a less flammable one that still looks much the same to people passing through.

How does the coverage compare?

All the reports describe the same restoration effort in the same location, but they emphasize slightly different angles. FOX 10 Phoenix provides the most detail, naming officials, quoting the flood-loss estimates, and explaining both the wildfire and flood risk in depth alongside a video piece from reporter Nicole Krasean. 12 News Phoenix offers a much shorter framing, stressing the 1,500-acre mitigation footprint and the wildfire-damage prevention angle in a single line. FOX 10’s two pieces are effectively companion items — a written article and an accompanying video segment — covering identical ground.

Why this matters beyond Flagstaff

The project reflects a broader pattern across the fire-prone West: land managers increasingly treat wildfire and post-fire flooding as a single connected risk rather than separate problems, since burned slopes often produce the most damaging flooding events in the years after a fire. Coconino County’s push to document these mitigation efforts for insurers also points to a growing trend of communities trying to use forest management work as leverage against rising wildfire-related insurance costs, a concern shared by many mountain and forest-adjacent communities in Arizona and beyond.

Sources

• 12 News Phoenix
• FOX 10 Phoenix — Coconino National Forest $4.2M restoration project targets wildfire and flood risks near Flagstaff · Multi-million dollar project targets wildfire and flood risk in Flagstaff

Featured photo: Bob Blasi; Coconino National Forest via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)