This project is the first phase in an effort to restore ecologically appropriate fire, on a landscape scale, to the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area fire-dependent ecosystem. Fire, a key ecological process that sustains and regulates fire-dependent ecosystems, has been excluded for nearly 100 years. Fire and fire by-products provide the effects needed to maintain a mosaic of plant communities, in various stages of succession across the landscape, to meet the needs of the wildlife species that evolved with the historic frequent fire regime characteristic of ponderosa pine ecosystems. Primary goals of this project are: 1) to reduce and/or reconfigure the historically uncharacteristic accumulation of fuels by thinning, pruning, piling and burning; and 2) using prescribed fire, restore ecologically appropriate fire to the landscape. The project will begin implementation of the recently completed Sinlahekin Fuels Reduction and Fire Regime Restoration Plan and will compliment ongoing cooperative efforts with the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service whose lands respectively intermingle and adjoin the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area. This project is expected to improve conditions for many wildlife species,particularly the ponderosa obligate species including flammulated owls, pygmy nuthatchs and white-headed woodpeckers that require late seral conditions. Also the project will reduce risk of catastrophic wildfire, rejuvenate mule deer winter range, improve forest health and provide jobs.