Water, woodchips and wildlife – Restoring the grassland in northern Arizona

Rolling down the hills of northern Arizona, a sea of pinyon juniper trees steadily encroaches into the grasslands area. Nestled among them, a massive woodchipper kicks up dust into the dry air as a crew feeds it a steady stream of logs and branches. A thinning crew works hard to cut back the junipers to restore the grassland landscape and retain dwindling water resources. As crews remove these encroaching trees from the landscape, more water can stay in the soil.

“You don’t think about it until you turn the faucet and [water] doesn’t show up,” said Reuben Verner, a third-generation rancher. “And at some point, with the growth that we’re seeing, sooner or later we’re going to run out if we don’t start learning how to manage this as a renewable resource.”