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TAKE ACTION
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Protect Your Natural Heritage: Speak Up for the Prescott National Forest
How to Help
Talking Points for Writing My Comments
Where to Send My Comments
Also interested in Travel Management Planning? It's a separate process--click here for our helpful guidelines on keeping the Prescott National Forest quiet for non-motorized users and wildlife.
Background
The Prescott National Forest (PNF) is a beautiful and diverse 1.2 million acre landscape located in central Arizona. Within this forest, a visitor can find high, craggy peaks, perennial rivers and creeks, rolling juniper grasslands, and numerous wildlife species. The Prescott NF provides many benefits to the citizens of Arizona such as intact watersheds, which provide clean drinking water, carbon sinks to absorb carbon dioxide and in return, produce clean oxygen, refuge for wildlife--some of which are rare or endangered, places to recreate to restore our physical and mental well-being, and many others.
 But due to increasing pressure from development, improperly managed recreation, and poorly managed extractive industries, the Prescott NF needs people who will stand up and speak on behalf of forest resources that cannot speak for themselves. Wilderness areas provide one indispensable piece of the mosaic needed to protect this forest and its inhabitants to ensure its overall health is sustained into the future. Currently, the Prescott NF manages eight wilderness areas totaling 130,509 acres or approximately 9% of the total forest lands. These eight areas demonstrate the Prescott NF’s dedication to preserving areas suitable as wilderness but there are other areas also deserving of wilderness designation that have not yet received protections. The most notable of these unprotected lands are nine Inventoried Roadless Areas (IRA’s), and potential additions to existing wilderness areas. As a member of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition, this is your opportunity to let the PNF hear your voice on future wilderness designations and management. Here are some details about what the PNF is looking to hear about and how you can submit meaningful comments.
How To Help
The PNF will be revising their Forest Plan, which is the overarching document that guides management decisions for the next 15 years. The first step in the revision process is to identify ‘needs for change’ and receive public comments. The PNF has identified their needs for change as follows:
Primary needs for change:
1. Restore vegetation, structure, composition, and desired characteristics of fire to selected ecosystems, while responding to citizen concerns related to smoke emissions.
2. Retain or improve watershed integrity to provide desired water quality, quantity, and timing of delivery.
3. Provide sustainable and diverse recreation experiences that consider population demographic characteristics, reflect desires of local communities, avoid overcrowding and user conflicts, and minimize resource damage.
Secondary needs for change have been identified, but may require a less detailed response:
a. Provide desired habitat for native fish species.
b. Enhance the value of open space provided by the Prescott National Forest by defining the visual character within areas near or viewed by those in local communities.
How To Write Comments
The most poignant comments are those that express personal experiences within the Prescott NF. If you have had a positive or negative experience, put that in your comments. Be specific and let the PNF know what you do and don’t like about how they are managing this irreplaceable landscape. To help you with your comments, here are some general informative statements:
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There are nine Inventoried Roadless Areas on the PNF. Some of these have received degradation because the protections offered by an IRA designation are not as protective as a wilderness designation. The IRA’s on the Prescott National Forest are: Sheridan Mountain (near Camp Wood), Connell Mountains (also near Camp Wood), Blind Indian Creek (on the southern end of the Forest near Castle Creek Wilderness), Arnold Mesa (adjacent to Cedar Bench Wilderness), Grief Hill (west of Camp Verde near I-17), Black Canyon (west of Cottonwood), Ash Creek (on Mingus Mountain and the headwaters of the Agua Fria River), Muldoon (near Perkinsville and adjacent to the Verde River), and Fritsche (located on the northern portion of the Forest west of highway 89).
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Wilderness areas are defined as “…an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man….. land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature..” (Pub. L. 88-577
The Wilderness Act, 1964)
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Based on the definition of a wilderness area and the prescribed management of wilderness areas, they would help to meet the goals of #1 in the ‘Needs for Change’ statement mentioned above. Without human influence, vegetative communities and fire regimes would trend towards natural conditions.
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Wilderness areas allow ecological processes to find balance without drastic impediments from human actions. Watersheds are complex systems that rely on various natural components to function in harmony such as water retention, water channeling, healthy vegetation, wildlife species, and even natural fire occurrences. When watersheds are left to natural adaptation, they are quite capable of sustaining themselves without management actions. This speaks to #2 in the ‘Needs for Change’ stated above.
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One of the inherent benefits of wilderness areas are “…outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation...” (Pub. L. 88-577, The Wilderness Act, 1964). While there is no shortage of urban and semi-urban types of recreation, wilderness areas provide the unique opportunity to find oneself in an intimate setting with nature. Wilderness areas represent the most unprocessed recreational setting in the spectrum of recreation types provided by federal lands. This speaks to #3 in the ‘Needs for Change’ stated above.
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Additional considerations for comments are protection of the Verde River. The headwaters of this perennial 177 mile long river are located on the on the Prescott NF. The upper Verde River (from its headwaters near Paulden to the northern portion of the Verde Valley) are eligible as a Wild and Scenic River. The PNF should maintain the Verde in a conditional suitable for future consideration as a Wild and Scenic River. Threats to the upper Verde include removing water from the river, unmanaged recreation (motorized and non-motorized), pollution which could effect the numerous threatened species, and transportation planning such as a proposed highway that would cross the upper Verde River canyon.
- Potential New Wilderness on the Prescott National Forest
a. Apache Creek Wilderness Additions: this area should be expanded to include areas to the east, south, and west. It has outstanding naturalness and solitude. Roads 95A (east of wilderness) & 95B (south of wilderness) should be evaluated for potential closure due to cost of upkeep and erosion problems. Road 150A should be closed because access to this road is only through private property. The wilderness could be expanded to include Hyde Mountain.
b. Castle Creek Wilderness Additions: All the lands to the south of Poland Creek and east to the forest boundary. This addition would be contiguous with both Castle Creek Wilderness and lands identified by the BLM as having wilderness characteristics in the Black Canyon area.
c. Juniper Mesa Wilderness Additions: The boundary on the south side of the Mesa should be brought down to County Road 125, excluding the private lands. The east side should also be looked at strongly for expansion. The North side could possibly be expanded with completion of the Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange.
d. Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Additions: The area on the southwest side of the wilderness could be expanded by converting road 181 to a non-motorized trail at Henderson Flat. The same could be true for road 639 by converting it to non-motorized trail near its junction with road 181. Many more expansion possibilities exist with the boundary following the rim in many places. Including lands above the canyon rim, which would protect a greater diversity of landscapes and wildlife habitat.
The Arizona Wilderness Coalition will be submitting numerous wilderness proposals for the PNF. For more information on wilderness, wilderness on the Prescott NF, or general Prescott NF info, contact Sam Frank at AWC’s Prescott office. sfrank@azwild.org or 928-717-6076
More information on the PNF Forest Plan Revision process go to the Analysis of the Management Situation on the Prescott National Forest planning web site.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/prescott/plan-revision/index.shtml
Comments for the PNF Forest Plan Revision can be sent to:
Sally Hess-Samuelson, Forest Planner
344 South Cortez Street
Prescott, Arizona 86303
Or for email:
shesssamuelson@fs.fed.us
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