Researchers Study in the Land of the Giants

Researchers Study in the Land of the Giants

In a place called Barney Spring, Ecological Restoration Institute researchers are wading through a sea of waist-high ferns to study among the giants in a rare, old-growth forest. Ecologists have been predicting the disappearance of most old-growth ponderosa pines within our lifetime. In the West, where the forests have been heavily logged and much younger trees now crowd the landscape, old-growth pines almost can be considered an endangered species. But on the Mogollon Rim south of Flagstaff, these vulnerable giants still live in abundance. "It's humbling to look up at these trees. You feel so small," said Northern Arizona University forestry graduate student Eryn Schneider. "Many of these trees are 150 feet tall or taller, the upper range of ponderosas in this region." But despite their impressive height, it's their more impressive age that has researchers so interested. "Some of these trees easily could be 400 years old. Maybe 450," said ERI Executive Director Wally Covington. This particular tract of land, once owned by a railroad company, is now the private property of contractor Warren Smith. Somehow it has dodged the ax of loggers and the burn of catastrophic wildfire. It now serves as a 160-acre window into the past, the kind of window Covington and other ecologists have always wanted to peer into. "To have these old-growth trees as kind of the anchor for restoring natural biodiversity, natural beauty and the wildlife habitat of the area is really unique," he said. It's unique for researchers trying to reconstruct what the forest looked like before pioneers arrived and began making changes to the ecosystem through activities such as logging, grazing and fire suppression. "When you have a stand where you can actually look back far enough to see what it was before settlement, it's really helpful in establishing what a healthy system should look like," said Schneider. This summer, Schneider is identifying every old-growth tree out there. By recording the age, the number of pre-settlement trees per acre and their pattern on the landscape, she's hoping land managers will be able to use this information to recreate the natural forest structure and restore the ponderosa pine forest to a healthy condition. "I just fell in love with this property," said Smith. "I feel so blessed that such an area still exists where you can see what the forest would have been like before logging and before fire damage." But Smith knows this area may not exist as it is for long. Last summer's Taylor Fire came dangerously close to his land, torching and destroying many tall trees nearby. That sparked his attention. Since then, Smith has invited researchers out. He's learning what young trees to remove and how to clean up a century's worth of matchstick-like pine needles so these old giants can thrive and once again live with fire. Bonnie Stevens is the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University Program Director for Public Education and Information. Link to The AZ Daily Sun...

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Hart Attack Restores Health to Meadow

Hart Attack Restores Health to Meadow

Hart Prairie, with its lush grasslands, brilliant wildflowers and swaying aspen trees, is a popular spot this time of year, popular for hikers, birders, photographers and a number of different kinds of wildlife including herds of deer and elk. But this mountain meadow has been shrinking and drying. “High alpine meadows similar to this are often encroached by pines,” said Ecological Restoration Institute student researcher Brian Moss. “It’s definitely a problem across the West.” A problem, say researchers, because the thirsty pines may be crowding out other species and changing the way the meadow functions. Joining Moss at Hart Prairie this summer are Northern Arizona University students Avianna Acid and Madison Daniels. They are climbing over downed trees, maneuvering around gnarly old growth pines and wrapping measuring tapes around the younger pines under the closed forest canopy. You’d never know it, but they are working in what used to be an open meadow. With $1,650 in funding from the prestigious NAU Hooper Undergraduate Research Award, Moss is aging all the trees in the meadow to determine which ones were here historically. “We are identifying the pre-settlement trees, the ones that are part of the natural environment and were here when the area was functioning with natural fire,” he said. “We also are determining the historic boundaries of the meadow.” Meantime, The Nature Conservancy’s Hart Prairie Preserve program manager Neil Chapman has been studying the encroaching pine trees and wondering what this grassy alpine meadow would look and act like without them. “We find a lot of the pines coming into this meadow are very young and very large trees, and soak up a whole lot of moisture that disrupts the natural balance for other plants including the rare Bebb willow,” said Chapman. “As we look at the restoration of the meadow and our willows, one of the factors is restoring the upslope forest conditions.  All of the trees are about the same age and size as this tree.” The tree he is comparing has about 70 tree rings. It’s about 70 years old and unusually large, about two feet in diameter. The amount of space between the rings tells a story. The moisture and openness of the meadow allowed these trees to grow big, fast. They were able to become established here because fire has been virtually eliminated from Hart Prairie since the late 1800s. “We estimate between 50,000 and 80,000 gallons of water a day throughout the growing season are being absorbed by upslope pine trees that are encroaching into the meadow, reducing the surface flows and the underground flows for the willow drainages,” said Chapman. Historic photos show the meadow to be at least twice the size of what it is today. Since the late 1800s, a forest of young, but large, pines has poured in like an avalanche. “When trees move into a meadow, they significantly change the habitat that’s available to native wildlife,” said The Nature Conservancy forest ecologist Sarah Hurteau. “Turkeys, gophers, prairie dogs, elk, deer and pronghorn use this meadow. Pronghorn actually are a native species that are declining because of the lack of grasslands across the West. This is mostly due to fire suppression and the invasion of grasslands and savannahs with increased tree densities.” As trees trickle into the open space, Moss says another important component of the forest is lost, something he calls the edge effect. “The meadow edge is a really important area, too, because that’s where animals like to be so they can go into the woods to hide in a hurry if something comes while they are...

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Rare Flowers

Rare Flowers

Wildflowers in bloom are northern Arizona's reward for surviving one of the snowiest winters on record. But one striking hot pink flower growing in one of the harshest environments around has botanists bursting with questions. The hot pink penstemon clutei (pronounced CLUE-tee-eye), also known as the Sunset Crater Beardtongue, has caught the attention of bees, hummingbirds and plant ecologists such as Judy Springer of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University. "We're interested in doing research on this plant in particular because it only grows here. On the entire planet, the area around Sunset Crater is the only place you'll find it in the wild." A rare find indeed, this penstemon is a striking contrast among the black cinders of a thousand-year-old volcanic eruption. "The volcanic soils act as a mulch," said Springer. "There are cinders on top and then, if you go down a little bit, you'll come to a silty layer where the moisture resides." But the competition for moisture in the cinders is fierce. "We have found that this particular plant is severely impacted by competition," said ERI ecologist Doc Smith. "The large number of ponderosa pine trees that have encroached on this site have affected the beardtongue and its ability to thrive." ERI researchers say the pine forests of the West are unnaturally crowded with thickets of trees because of changes to the landscape since pioneers moved in. Overgrazing by early settlers removed the grasses that once carried frequent, low-intensity wildfires along the forest floor. This, along with fire suppression policies, allowed many small trees to become established and choke out wildflowers like the penstemon clutei. But competition from other plants is not this flower's only threat. It also seems to be a tasty treat for a number of wildlife species. "On a lot of these flowering stems you can see they have been nipped off, probably by deer, elk or rabbits," said Springer. How the Sunset Crater Beardtongue continues to thrive, how it got here and how it reproduces are questions researchers at the ERI are hoping to answer as they study the effects of a changing forest on a pretty plant, answers that may keep a rare and vibrant bloom from permanently fading into the sunset near Sunset Crater. Bonnie Stevens is the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University program director for public education and information. Link to The AZ Daily Sun Story...

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Cutting Edge Jobs

Cutting Edge Jobs

  April 15, 2011 Contact: bonnie.stevens@gmail.com For Immediate Release 928-380-4349   Cutting-edge Jobs Supported by Old Wood   Flagstaff, Ariz. – Hope for forests and communities at risk is spreading like wildfire in an isolated village south of Albuquerque. Northern Arizona University ecologists say what’s happening on the Alamo Navajo Reservation could well be a model for forest restoration across the Southwest where there are too many trees and not enough jobs. In a small lumberyard in Socorro, N.M., young adults are learning how to cut down trees, operate logging equipment and split firewood. Derek Padilla is the crew leader. “This project is helping me because it’s near my home on the reservation.” The Alamo Navajo Reservation consists of only about 2,000 people. Nearly 70 percent are unemployed and most are living below the national poverty level. Nearby is the Cibola National Forest, unnaturally thick with pinyon and juniper trees. The area is considered New Mexico’s most dangerous place for homes and businesses during fire season. “We’ve removed natural fire from a lot of the ecosystems throughout the West,” says Wally Covington, Arizona’s director for the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes and Regents’ Professor. “That has allowed forests to build up these ground fuels and ladder fuels and that’s what we’re trying to deal with across millions of acres. We’re trying to mimic what science tells us would be a more natural condition.” To achieve this desired condition, Covington says a trained labor force and a market for small diameter trees will be essential. In the Alamo Navajo Project, SWERI is providing training along with equipment, such as wood splitters and yarders. The collaboration also includes financial and in-kind assistance from the U.S. Forest Service. “A similar model could help facilitate efforts in northern Arizona where the nation’s largest forest restoration project, the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, is in the planning stages,” says Covington. The 4FRI aims to treat some 2.4 million acres of ponderosa pine across the Mogollon rim during the next 20 years. NAU researchers are providing ecological restoration science findings to the Forest Service to achieve landscape-scale forest health. “We now have people here who are trained in felling, trained in primary processing and trained in restoration monitoring,” says New Mexico’s SWERI Director Andrew Egan. “They are really making New Mexico forests healthier and making New Mexico a safer place to be because we are reducing the impacts of potential wildfires.” With the restoration institutes, the Alamo Navajo School Board has created a wood products program out of trees that nobody wanted. “We sell firewood all over the country,” says the school board’s Natural Resource Specialist Bill Ferranti. “Our biggest market is in west Texas. We shipped some to Chicago. We shipped some to North Carolina. We shipped more than 300 cords last year.” It’s a collaboration supported by Old Wood. Owner David Old is building a business out of sticks and branches in Las Vegas, N.M. “The whole plant is really scaled and geared for making flooring from smaller trees. We are not about cutting down the big trees.” If his idea stacks up, Old will construct a new foundation for some 50 employees in a $2-million-dollar a year operation. Old Wood’s first order for pinyon wood flooring cut by the Alamo Navajo crew is scheduled to go to a San Francisco restaurant. ### Feature...

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