Untreated ponderosa pine woodland compared to an area restored by the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership working with the Forest Service in 2008 on the Coconino National Forest in Arizona.

While people have squabbled over the direction of federal forest management, many landscapes have declined. Take southwestern ponderosa pine, for example. Where thick grasses once waved under big orange-barked pines, thickets of spindly trees now threaten natural and human communities alike through outbreaks of insects and disease, followed by devastating fires. Read more »