Forestry experts and business owners told a legislative committee on Dec. 6 that Arizona forests would benefit from thinning and business incentives to an emerging energy industry.

Wally Covington of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University told the Joint Legislative Healthy Forest Task Force that a population explosion of trees, particularly ponderosa pine, is threatening grassy areas and adding to the threat of forest fires.

“Grasses and wildflowers are the basis for biodiversity,” he said. “Leaving trees in these openings is not good for biodiversity and it’s not good for humans.”

Trees with diameters of 16 inches or greater in areas that were previously more spacious should be removed, he said.

Lawmaker: Congress has short attention span

Maintaining federal attention to Arizona’s forests and the risks of fires has been problematic, said the joint committee co-chair Sen. Marilyn Jarrett, R-19.

“They just keep disappearing when they have a break in Congress,” she said.

The emerging biomass industry, which converts wood and plant matter into fuels, chemicals, materials and power, can serve a larger role in removing the fallen trees and debris from the necessary thinning, said Jerry Payne of the U.S. Forest Service.

Since 2000, biomass has remained the largest U.S. renewable energy source. The Department of Energy’s Biomass Program credits its lack of toxicity and its role in reducing American dependence on imported oil and strengthening rural economies.

Rob Davis, president of Forest Energy Corporation, a Show Low-based biomass business that produces wood pellets to heat homes, said that a lack of federal subsidies and the rapid rise of fuel costs are continual limitations to the industry.

One immediate suggestion Mr. Davis voiced — allowing truckers to carry more trailers to haul more wood while reducing transportation costs — was “not going to happen,” said Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-25.

It is not likely the joint task force will meet again before the legislative session begins in January, said Ms. Jarrett, but she said that she will seek comments from smaller contractors to gauge their difficulties with transportation costs.

“I want to address the problems of hauling the material so maybe we can get it through the Legislature,” she said, adding that she wants to continue to press Congress for help with Arizona’s issues relating to forest fires.

In 2002, the Rodeo-Chediski fire burned 462,614 acres of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests. Approximately $153 million was spent extinguishing the fires, according to the Wilderness Society, an environmental group dedicated to land conservation.

In June 2002, the Rodeo fire began when Leonard Gregg, a seasonal firefighter, started a fire near rodeo grounds located four miles north of Cibique, Arizona. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Valinda Jo Elliot, a lost hiker, set a small blaze to gain the attention of a passing helicopter. The signal fire grew into what would be known as the Chediski fire and later merged with the Rodeo blaze, creating what is believed to be the largest fire in the history of Arizona. Ms. Elliot was not criminally prosecuted.