ARIZONA — Playing God is tough. Especially when you’ve got bills to pay. Now throw in the Forest Service bureaucracy — and you’ve got some major puzzles to ponder. So loggers, elected officials, emergency planners and power plant operators all faced a mixture of frustration and hope at the Dec. 6 meeting of the Natural Resources Working Group. They’re literally on the cutting edge of the massive effort to thin millions of acres of unhealthy forest before the next crown fire strikes — all without going broke, breaking the law — or wiping out any endangered species. So here’s the good news. …The Four Forest Restoration Initiative has adopted an ambitious plan to clear nearly 50,000 acres of dense forest stands annually — after years of struggling to clear 5,000 or 10,000 in a year. The new pace relies on millions from the Forest Service to ensure the tiny trees and mounds of biomass get removed along with the commercial timber.