The forests in Northern Arizona are lie in the dry southwestern part of the United States. The warmer, drier climate has caused an increase in wildfire severity across the United States. The Nature Conservancy has been performing thinning operations on overstocked Ponderosa pine forests in Northern Arizona and elsewhere to mitigate wildfire risk and increase carbon absorption by 9-18%.
Large-scale forest restoration stabilizes carbon under climate change in Southwest United States
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eap.1979
This Nature Conservancy Fact Sheet illustrates the benefits of thinning operations in an overstocked forest:
California’s forests can be managed to become more resilient to megafires.
https://www.scienceforconservation.org/products/wildfires-and-forest-resilience