13
June
2023
|
09:23 AM
America/Denver

SRP Customers Step Up to Support Forest Health

SRP Healthy Forest Initiative™ has cleared more than 1,600 acres of unhealthy forest

More than 1,600 acres of critical forests that contain the watersheds for the Valley’s water have been thinned and restored thanks to the help of SRP customers.

Over the last 3 years, almost $800,000 has been raised to support the SRP Healthy Forest Initiative™ (HFI), a customer-funded program that supports strategic forest thinning projects to help reduce the risk and devastating impacts of catastrophic wildfire and protect the health of the watersheds that provide water to the Valley.

The community-funded initiative is part of SRP’s 2035 Sustainability Goals to protect the health of the watersheds through forest restoration treatments. The work is done through partnerships, education and support for industry to thin 50,000 acres per year or 500,000 acres of unhealthy overgrown forested lands by 2035.

“We are so appreciative of our customers who see the value in forest health and want to be a part of the solution to help prevent devastating wildfires,” said Elvy Barton, SRP Manager of Water and Forest Sustainability.

The majority of the Valley’s water supply originates as rain and snow from 8.3 million acres of watershed lands spread across northern and eastern Arizona.

Wildfires sear the forest floor and soil, keeping snowmelt and rain from being absorbed into the ground and can fill rivers and streams with ash and debris, causing water quality and supply issues, Barton said.

HFI funding supported the Baker and Roosevelt Projects, which restored a portion of the ponderosa pine forest in northern Arizona. The small-diameter trees removed from this project, which is currently underway, are shipped to a Phoenix pallet company and to Novo BioPower, Arizona’s only biomass renewable energy facility located in Snowflake.

Partners in the Baker and Roosevelt Projects include the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Arizona Game and Fish, U.S. Forest Service and the Town and Payson.

In addition to preventing and slowing catastrophic wildfires, this strategic thinning effort:

  • removes small, unhealthy trees and leaves large, mature trees,
  • helps store more carbon in healthy trees and in wood products made from small trees,
  • creates a healthier ecosystem more resilient to the effects of climate change,
  • protects and enhances wildlife and habitats,
  • brings jobs to the area.

Residential customers can now sign up for the SRP Healthy Forest Initiative™ at srp.net/healthyforest

download
SRP ForestThinning Broll
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning in the East Clear Creek watershed covers a 1,010-acre area of the Cragin Watershed Protection Project (CWPP), which supplies water to the C.C. Cragin Reservoir. Water from the reservoir supplies the Town of Payson as well as the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning in the East Clear Creek watershed covers a 1,010-acre area of the Cragin Watershed Protection Project (CWPP), which supplies water to the C.C. Cragin Reservoir. Water from the reservoir supplies the Town of Payson as well as the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning efforts help reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire while protecting nearby communities and habitat for wildlife from the impacts of wildfire as well as the watershed and nearby infrastructure that provide water to the Town of Payson and the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning efforts help reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire while protecting nearby communities and habitat for wildlife from the impacts of wildfire as well as the watershed and nearby infrastructure that provide water to the Town of Payson and the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning in the East Clear Creek watershed covers a 1,010-acre area of the Cragin Watershed Protection Project (CWPP), which supplies water to the C.C. Cragin Reservoir. Water from the reservoir supplies the Town of Payson as well as the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning in the East Clear Creek watershed covers a 1,010-acre area of the Cragin Watershed Protection Project (CWPP), which supplies water to the C.C. Cragin Reservoir. Water from the reservoir supplies the Town of Payson as well as the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning in the East Clear Creek watershed covers a 1,010-acre area of the Cragin Watershed Protection Project (CWPP), which supplies water to the C.C. Cragin Reservoir. Water from the reservoir supplies the Town of Payson as well as the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Baker Thinning Project HFI
Strategic forest thinning efforts help reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire while protecting nearby communities and habitat for wildlife from the impacts of wildfire as well as the watershed and nearby infrastructure that provide water to the Town of Payson and the Phoenix metropolitan area.
About SRP

SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility and the largest electricity provider in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving approximately 1.1 million customers. SRP provides water to about half of the Valley’s residents, delivering more than 244 billion gallons of water (750,000 acre-feet) each year, and manages a 13,000-square-mile watershed that includes an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, canals and irrigation laterals.