Six Years After Bighorn Fire: US Forest Service Plans Larger-Scale Restoration in Arizona's Catalina Mountains

Nearly six years after the Bighorn Fire burned approximately 120,000 acres across the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona (June–August 2020), U.S. Forest Service officials convened on May 7, 2026 to discuss the ongoing restoration trajectory and plans for larger-scale ecological interventions. Having passed the five-year mark — a key threshold for assessing post-fire regeneration — forest managers announced plans for expanded thinning, erosion stabilization, and native-species planting across the Coronado National Forest. Monsoon-season erosion following the fire had degraded multiple watersheds used by the greater Tucson metro area. Natural regeneration of chaparral scrub and some ponderosa pine has occurred on north-facing slopes, but fire-prone grass competition and persistent drought have limited recovery at lower elevations. Forest Service managers cited the post-fire restoration as an ongoing multi-decade effort and noted that preventive thinning undertaken in the 2010s materially reduced fire severity in treated areas.