| Winter 2008 Newsletter |
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CONTENTS: Planting Trials in Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests Ecology and Society Publishes a Special Issue About Old Growth in Western Frequent-fire Forests ERI Adopts a Second Aspen Fence ERI Graduate Student and NAU Researcher Receive $30K Grant from Arizona Game and Fish Department ERI Botanists Team with the Arboretum at Flagstaff to Study Native Penstemons Drought Influences the Regrowth of Understory Vegetation More than Grazing Cave Creek Sonoran Desert Seeding Project
In the summer of 2005, a human-caused wildfire burned about 4 acres in Cave Creek Regional Park, north of Phoenix. After the fire, John Gunn, park manager at the time, prepared a restoration project for the burned area that included seeding a mix of more than 20 native plant species and adding straw mulch to assist in plant establishment. Conventional wisdom has it that re-seeding disturbed areas in desert environments does not work due to harsh conditions, including high temperatures and sparse, unpredictable rainfall. Since hard evidence for or against this assertion is lacking, Gunn contacted ERI Associate Director, Diane Vosick, to inquire about initiating a monitoring program to gauge the success of the seeding portion of the restoration project. Continued on page 2 
Planting Trials in Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forests Wildfires, ecological restoration treatments, roadbuilding activities, and other disturbances on the landscape can result in open, bare areas that contain few healthy native plants and may be susceptible to invasion by aggressive non-native plant species. While seeding has been the preferred method for increasing native plant cover in such situations, using grass plugs, shrubs or forb seedlings is a possible, but largely untested, alternative in northern Arizona ponderosa pine forests. Scott Abella, a former ERI ecological research specialist and now an assistant research professor at UNLV, and I, with the assistance of several other ERI employees, conducted five planting trials, involving 11 native grasses, forbs, and shrubs. The idea was to test the success of transplanting and outplanting following ecological restoration treatments in ponderosa pine forests. None of the planting trials involved the use of supplemental watering or other amendments, except for addition of pine litter in one of the studies. Plant survival was mainly dependent on timing of precipitation, the health of the young transplants, and microsite conditions at the planting site. Continued on page 2 Ecology and Society Publishes a Special Issue About Old Growth in Western Frequent-fire Forests The online journal, Ecology and Society, recently published a series of articles about the past, present, and future of old growth in the frequent-fire forests of the American West. This special issue is the product of an Old Growth Writing Workshop, sponsored by the ERI and held at Northern Arizona University on April 18–19, 2006. A multi-disciplinary group of 25 writers produced this important collective expression in order to explain the unique ecological and cultural history of old growth in the dry forests of the American West. Moreover, the authors suggest ways to conserve and restore old growth in these frequent-fire ecosystems—methods and strategies that are distinctive from those employed in the more heralded old-growth rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. ERI Adopts a Second Aspen Fence
The golden glow on the mountains near Flagstaff was beautiful last autumn…and deceitful. In fact, it may have been one of the longest and most lovely autumns for aspen colors in years, but the truth is the aspen groves are dying. Just take a walk in an aspen grove this summer and look around for seedlings. Chances are you won’t find one--not a single stem. Why, you ask? Because Rocky Mountain elk happen to be particularly fond of aspen seedlings, and there is a very large elk population in northern Arizona. Thus, the most effectively and immediate method to assist the recovery of aspen around Flagstaff is to erect tall fences to keep the elk out. As researchers at ERI, my colleagues and I spend most of our time analyzing data and reporting on the effects of restoration treatments. I thought it would be fun and rewarding to get our hands dirty twice a year by participating in one of the more important restoration projects in southwestern forests: aiding aspen regeneration by maintaining elk exclosure fences. Continued on page 2 ERI Graduate Student and NAU Researcher Receive $30K Grant from Arizona Game and Fish Department  Liz Kalies, a graduate student with NAU’s School of Forestry and the ERI, and Carol Chambers, a professor of wildlife ecology in the School of Forestry, have secured a $30,000 research grant from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Working in partnership with the ERI, they plan to use the funding to continue Kalies’s doctoral research into the effects of restoration and fuels reduction treatments on small mammals in Arizona’s ponderosa pine forests. With the increasingly widespread implementation of ecological restoration and fuels reduction treatments on forested landscapes around northern Arizona, there is concern among wildlife scientists that the treatments do not harm the habitat and food needs of the small mammal community. The small mammal community in particular forms a crucial link between lower-level ecosystem functions, such as seed and fungal spore dispersal, and top-level predators, such as the northern goshawk and Mexican spotted owl. Kalies’s work involves trapping animals at about 200 sites around northern Arizona with the help of ERI undergraduate field crews, then applying a cutting-edge analytical method called “occupancy modeling” to assess changes in the small mammal community that result from forest treatments. Armed with these results, Kalies and Chambers hope to propose treatments that will improve habitat for small mammal communities. Ultimately, this partnership between NAU/ERI researchers and the AZGFD will help land management agencies design landscape-scale forest restoration treatments that will achieve forest management goals while better protecting wildlife species and enhancing their habitat. ERI Botanists Team with the Arboretum at Flagstaff to Study Native Penstemons
The genus Penstemon is the largest genera of native wildflowers in North America, and the Four Corners Area is thought to be the center from which penstemons evolved and spread. Arizona has some 45 unique species. Fifteen species, subspecies or varieties in Arizona are ranked as S1 (critically imperiled) or S2 (imperiled). Many more are not yet ranked. With funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, ERI botanists recently teamed with researchers from the Arboretum at Flagstaff to collect data on three native penstemon species: pineneedle beardtongue (Penstemon pinifolius), Flagstaff beardtongue (P. nudiflorus) and coiled anther penstemon (P. ophianthus). Flagstaff penstemon is endemic to Arizona and is listed as S3 (vulnerable) Pineneedle beardtongue is found in Arizona and New Mexico, and coiled anther penstemon is found in all states of the Four Corners Area. Both are listed as S2. Continued on page 2 Alumni Corner
Stop the presses! Luke Brandy (B.S. Forestry ’06) writes that he’s returning to his native Oregon with his wife, Erin Thurston (B.S. Environmental Science ’06). They have left golden California for verdant Oregon where Luke has accepted a timber sale prep job on the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest. His new duty station will be in Cave Junction, which is about halfway between the Rogue Valley where he grew up, and the Redwoods. Erin will be going to river guide school on the Rogue River. Happy trails, you two! Alumni Corner continued on page 2
Drought Influences the Regrowth of Understory Vegetation More than Grazing 
For more than a century, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ecosystems in the Southwest have been subjected to a combination of different land use practices, such as logging, fire suppression, and domestic livestock grazing. Among these practices, grazing has long been recognized as one of the most pervasive and, therefore, has been a commonly studied topic. However, researchers and others have had difficulty separating the effects of grazing from variation in climatic patterns, other disturbances (e.g., fire), and different management styles. This has confounded the topic, resulting in an assortment of conclusions and suggested practices. The most commonly accepted recommendation is to rest pastures or remove livestock for a short period of time (e.g., 1-2 years) to allow the understory vegetation to rejuvenate. In this article, I report on a study that tested that recommendation. Continued on page 2 Staff News Welcome Joe Seidenberg to the ERI  Joe Seidenberg joined the ERI staff in early January as a program coordinator with an emphasis on community outreach. With a recent masters degree in public affairs (’07) from Indiana University Bloomington and previous work experience in the United States and Africa, Joe is poised to carry forward the collaborative work with communities that has made the ERI a unique applied research organization. Joe was born and raised in the Hoosier State but was always fascinated with the cowboy lifestyle, and as a result spent a great deal of his youth riding horses and hunting/exploring in the woods near Terra Haute with friends. He has an undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology (’99) from Butler University in Indianapolis. During his studies there, Joe participated in a field study of southwestern Native American tribes that helped him develop a deep appreciation for the unique cultures of our country and its varied/fragile landscapes. Beginning in late 2001, Joe served a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa. While in Ghana, he facilitated natural resource management projects and learned many valuable lessons about conducting collaborative work. He also become fascinated with the pressing need to find sustainable solutions to human and ecosystem interactions at both the local and international level. Several years later, Joe returned to Africa as an intern for the Policy and Law Division of the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya. Joe describes his interests as traveling and adventuring (hiking/climbing, snowshoeing, paddling) in areas steeped in natural beauty, interacting with diverse cultures and individuals, cooking and eating an array of tantalizing foods, listening and dancing to world beats, and spending time with family and friends. If you haven’t met Joe, please stop by and introduce yourself. He’s in Jesse Abrams’s former office. Staff News continued on page 2 |
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