While speaking at the National Fire Plan Conference in New Orleans, Gale Norton, secretary of the interior, announced five additional Healthy Forests pilot projects. They are:

• Weaver Mountain, Ariz., in Yavapai Country, three miles southeast of Yarnell, Ariz. The southern boundary is north of the Hassayampa Wilderness Area. The project includes approximately 14,000 acres, consisting of 8,950 Bureau of Land Management acres, 4,000 Arizona state acres and 1,100 acres of private ownership. The project will reduce interior chaparral brush within the area and improve rangeland and wildlife habitat conditions.
• White River Power Line project, near Rio Blanco County, Colo. The project involves mechanical thinning and prescribed burning of pinon, juniper and sagebrush stands that are directly adjacent to or near electric transmission lines. The Rio Blanco County commissioners and the White River Electric Association, recognizing that a hazardous fuel problem exists, requested that the BLM do hazardous fuel reduction treatments in the area.
• Horse Thief Subdivision near Roundup, Mont., 50 miles north of Billings, Mont. The BLM lands around the subdivision are overstocked with ponderosa pine, which provides for a very volatile fuel situation. The first treatment would be mechanical and consist of hand- or machine-thinning from below to reduce the fuel load. The second treatment would also be mechanical and would open the mature canopy to reduce the change of crown fire. Treatments would be maintained by periodic use of additional mechanical treatment and/or prescribed fire.
• BIA/Zuni Agency project in New Mexico, 35 miles west of Gallup. Prescribed fire and mechanical treatments will be applied to 1,300 acres of pine, gambel oak, pinyon and grassland vegetation to restore the landscape. Encroachment by pinyon and juniper has reduced wildlife habitat, ponderosa pine regeneration and productivity and increased soil erosion. The tribal government supports the project.
• Grand Teton National Park, Wyo., between Moran and Moose. This initiative encompasses seven sites, covering 83 acres of the park. The chiefly mechanical treatments will protect historical properties, private structures, National Park Service housing and a dam. The mixed conifer and sage rangelands have created a volatile fuel situation.

“Our proposals and pilot projects will help protect forest and rangeland for future generations. These thoughtful initiatives can make a difference in the number of fuels treatment projects we are able to move forward. They will help us restore the health of our forests and reduce risks to our communities,” Norton said.