About The Staff Unit

As part of the Regional office staff, our main job is to provide advice and technical support to the eleven National Forests in Arizona and New Mexico. People at that organizational level, and the associated Ranger Districts, conduct most of the project work and provide direct management of your National Forest lands. We also exchange technical information and share in partnerships with other resource management agencies and organizations, and we help coordinate programs with our national office and other Forest Service regions.

The Forestry group helps the National Forests with work such as:

• collecting information about forest trees and conditions
• determining how to develop or maintain diverse forest conditions to meet a wide range of resource objectives, like: maintaining water quality and wildlife habitat, reducing fire hazards, or providing forest products
• planting tree seedlings and thinning overly dense stands of forest trees
• managing the sale of forest products such as firewood, poles, vigas, and trees used for fiber or lumber products.

The Forest Health groups share similar program responsibilities within their respective state zones, their work includes:

• conducting surveys to detect and monitor forest insect and disease conditions
• providing advice on how conditions might affect the forests
• providing advice and support on projects to help prevent or suppress insect and disease outbreaks
• publishing forest insect and disease guides