As part of a five-year research agreement, the Phoenix-based Salt River Project (SRP) is funding several Northern Arizona University projects in 2020-2021 that look into forest health and restoration, renewable energy sources and increasing diversity in STEM fields. These projects build on several studies SRP was already funding.
This five-year partnership, which funds research focusing on applied research activities related to SRP’s core businesses of power and water,… Read more
For about 100 years, a deadly disease called white pine blister rust has been spreading steadily from Canada across western forests of the United States and along the East Coast. The fungus, Cronartium ribicola, attacks five-needle pines and kills more than 95 percent of the trees it infects by cutting off pathways for water and nutrients in the cambium layer, where new growth occurs.
The U.S.… Read more
After a national search, the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University has named prominent quantitative forest ecologist and cutting-edge researcher Andrew Sánchez Meador as its new executive director. He replaces ERI founder and long-time executive director Wally Covington, who retired in January.
Sánchez Meador is a trusted expert among… Read more
Given the tremendous ability of forests to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, some governments are counting on planted forests as offsets for greenhouse gas emissions—a sort of climate investment. As with any investment, however, it’s important to understand the risks. If a forest goes bust—through severe droughts or wildfires, researchers say—much of… Read more
As climate change and drought cause increasingly severe wildfires and degrade forest health throughout the Southwest, researchers at Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) are working on sustainable solutions that support forest restoration as well as the long-term economic health of the region.
NAU professor Han-Sup Han, ERI… Read more
Land managers are increasingly interested in using lightning-ignited wildfires as a tool to restore forests and reduce fuel loads. But, there is little known about the effectiveness of managing wildfires to meet restoration goals.
For the past several years, ecologists at the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University have been working to better understand ecological outcomes of wildfires managed to achieve resource objectives and conditions under which practitioners can… Read more