Ecological Restoration Institute

2006-2007 Strategic Plan

October 19, 2006

Introduction

The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is nationally recognized for mobilizing the unique assets of a University to help solve the problem of unnaturally severe wildfire and degraded forest health. Focusing principally on landscapes where unprecedented wildfires threaten ecological and community sustainability, the ERI works to help cooperative efforts led by land management agencies and communities by providing comprehensive focused studies and monitoring and evaluation research and technical support.

Realizing that wildland and community health problems are interdisciplinary by nature, we seek to engage the university community across disciplinary boundaries—not just foresters, ecologists, and environmental scientists, but also engineers, economists, social scientists, educators, and beyond. In addition to the standard university functions of knowledge discovery, synthesis, and transfer, the ERI stresses a learning-by-doing approach—one that helps faculty, staff, and students gain real life experience working with land management agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers at the local to national level. Our goal is not just discovery of knowledge, but meaningful work that makes a difference for western forests.

The ERI was formally established by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1997 and by federal legislation in 2004. The ERI is funded by a combination of programmatic state and federal funding and through competitive grants programs.

The ERI’s work is designed to fully support NAU’s 2005-2010 Strategic Plan and the objectives of the Arizona Board of Regents’ Technology and Research Initiatives Fund (Proposition 301).

NAU’s Strategic Plan states seven goals to:

1. Provide undergraduate educational excellence in a residential learning community
2. Strengthen graduate and professional education, economic development, and research
3. Increase enrollment and retention
4. Provide leadership in the development, use, and assessment of technologies in educational programs
5. Foster a culture of diversity, community, and citizenship
6. Become the Nation’s leading university serving Native Americans
7. Ensure financial stability and growth

The success of ERI’s efforts to advance understanding of these issues by linking research and outreach is reflected by the attention our work receives by decision makers from the local to national level. On July 6, 2006 Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns made a special trip to Flagstaff to view the forest restoration research of the ERI. He is just one individual among many (e.g., two Secretaries of Interior, the Chief of the Forest Service, the Director of the National Park Service, four Governors) that have come to the ERI to broadened their understanding and knowledge of how to solve the forest health and wildfire crisis.

The ERI updates its strategic plan regularly to ensure that budgeting, programs, and staff retention and expansion support current and future goals. The plan provides an opportunity to reflect on past actions and outcomes, evaluate their effectiveness and identify adjustments that will make the ERI a stronger, more effective organization. This plan guarantees that the ERI will remain an agile organization with the ability to respond quickly to emerging restoration issues.

Vision

The ERI will provide knowledge services that directly contribute to the comprehensive restoration and conservation of frequent fire landscapes.

Mission

The ERI will serve as an objective leader in research, scholarship, and education and in collaborative efforts to plan and implement restoration treatments for frequent-fire forest and woodland landscapes in the Interior West.

Accomplishments

The accomplishments of the ERI reflect our unflagging commitment to provide knowledge and service to the land managers, stakeholders and practitioners that influence forest restoration. We actively contribute to the quality of education at NAU by investing human and financial resources in undergraduate and graduate students from majors across campus, and maintain a strong partnership with the School of Forestry.

“I hope all of you at ERI know what a terrific experience ERI has been for Aleta in terms of real-world learning, and more importantly, in terms of mentoring from staff. Not many college kids can count themselves that lucky. My husband and I are very grateful for the way ERI has multiplied the value of her college education.”
----Shelley Kirk-Rudeen, mother of Aleta Rudeen, NAU graduate, 2006

• Since 2000 the ERI has funded 117 undergraduates representing 28 majors across campus
• Of the 40 undergraduate students registered for the Spring 2006 semester and supported by the ERI, 50% made the Dean's List with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. The average cumulative GPA for ERI funded students is 3.43. The GPA for the university at large is 3.05. Twelve students earned GPAs of 4.0 during the Spring semester, and 3 students maintained their cumulative GPAs of 4.0
• The interdisciplinary and unique field experience of ERI undergraduates contributes to an exciting educational environment only available on the mountain campus

• Since 2000 the ERI has attracted over $17 million in federal dollars to NAU. The ERI has shared over $5 M to support research across campus
• The ERI has been awarded over $1.8 million in competitive research grants since 2000
• In 2003 (the last year for which data are available) the value of national media that included articles about or quoting Wally Covington on forest health and wildfire was valued at $17 million if it were valued as advertising for NAU
• By funding undergraduates and graduates from across the University the ERI contributes to the productivity of faculty advisors
• Since 2000, the ERI has funded a total of 71 graduate students representing 8 majors across the NAU campus

• In 2005-2006 the ERI provided $247,000 to support seven SOF faculty and their graduate students
• The ERI has contributed $39,000 and numerous volunteers to the Centennial Forest/Junior Forest Academy over the past three years
• Since 2000 the ERI has contributed to over $1.1 million in capital improvements to the Southwest Forest Science Complex
• ERI vehicles are used by Forestry graduate students to support their projects reducing pressure on SOF vehicles
• ERI undergraduates assist SOF graduate students in research and data collection
• Since 2000, 37 of 117 or 32% of our undergraduates were School of Forestry majors
• Since 2000, the ERI has supported 42 graduate students in the School of Forestry

“The Coconino County Board of Supervisors supports the work of the ERI. Through their research and public outreach we are making improvements in the way our communities and forest resources are managed. Their work is very important for those of us charged with the welfare of citizens that live in this region, in the largest contiguous ponderosa forest in the world.”
---Supervisor Deb Hill, District 4, Coconino County Board of Supervisors

• The ERI has provided over $450,000 in research funding to the Arizona Department of Game and Fish since 2000
• ERI Director Wally Covington has served on state-level committees initiated by two Governors and the Legislature to advance Forest Health
• The ERI provides financial and technical support to numerous collaborative organizations and tribes in the Southwest including: the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership (Flagstaff); the Natural Resources Working Group (White Mountains); the Hualapai, Navajo, Kaibab Paiute, Mescalero Apache and White Mountain Apache Tribes
• The ERI in cooperation with partners in New Mexico developed a multi-party monitoring framework for use by participants in the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program. The multiparty monitoring handbooks were referenced in the Healthy Forests Initiative/Healthy Forests Restoration Act Interim Field Guide that establishes national guidance for forest restoration

“The BLM needs the ERI to find answers to ecological problems through science and research and then transfer this information to the agency (as well as other agencies). We can then confidently change our management strategies to improve the health of these ecosystems. If we did not have the ERI do this, we would just be guessing what would work.”
-----Ken Moore, Arizona BLM Strip District

• The ERI has provided technical assistance for agencies analyzing restoration treatments on over 525,000 acres
• During calendar year 2005 the ERI conducted 11 workshops to train land managers to design restoration treatments. These workshops were supported by 23 field visits to apply what was learned in the field
• The ERI provides technical assistance to 11 National Forests, the BLM in Arizona, Grand Canyon National Park, and the BIA

“The value of ERI as a non-governmental education/research based entity cannot be overstated and has allowed for better collaboration with interest groups, better communication with the research community and increased internal dialogue on the range of options to reverse forest health decline and provide for meaningful comprehensive and holistic vegetative management treatments at an appropriate scale with broad implications.”
---Chuck Hagerdon, District Ranger, Mt Taylor Ranger District

• Since 2003 staff and faculty of the ERI have produced 57 peer reviewed articles
• Since 2000 the ERI has produce 15 working papers to transfer the best available science to land managers
• Since 2000 the ERI has published one book and several field guides to assist in restoration
• The ERI maintains a comprehensive website with a library containing all current publications to provide information electronically to all stakeholders
• In 2005 the ERI assisted in the production of a series of six workbooks to aid community stakeholders in their efforts to conduct multi-party monitoring as a part of the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program
• In 2005 the ERI published a forest restoration curriculum guide for middle and high school students
• Since 2003 the ERI has conducted over 240 presentations and field trips for such diverse participants as the Garden Club of America to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, Chief of the Forest Service Dale Bosworth and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns

Strategic Direction

Unhealthy forests and catastrophic wildfire continue to pose a serious threat to communities and forest lands of the Southwest. The good news is that public interest and dedication to solving the problem remains strong and well focused. However, ERI staff continue to see the implementation of forest treatments that fall short of their objectives to reduce hazardous fuels and restore forest health. Confusion still exists about what it means to do ecological restoration versus hazardous fuels reduction treatment, or how treatments can achieve multiple objectives that fit into the evolutionary framework of ponderosa pine ecosystems. This knowledge is an essential underpinning to accomplishing long-term, effective restoration and improve the socio-economic health of the communities that depend on healthy forest ecosystems.

During the next five years the ERI will continue to carry out research, information synthesis and information transfer that responds to the needs of the primary users (land managers, policy makers, and the public). ERI actions will contribute to the development and implementation of effective and strategic restoration-based hazardous fuel reduction treatments.

Five Year Goals

1. The ERI will develop rigorous, knowledge-based information and approaches needed to restore the ecological health of frequent fire forests and related ecosystems. a. Biophysical science b. Landscape assessments
2. The ERI will develop rigorous, knowledge-based information and approaches to restore the socio-economic vitality of forest-dependent communities. a. Collaboration b. Utilization c. Multi-party monitoring d. Policy interpretation for practitioners
3. The ERI will assist land managers, practitioners and stakeholders to design and implement restoration-based forest restoration treatments.
4. The ERI will translate and transfer new and existing science and social science research for key audiences.
5. The ERI will contribute to the development of a professional restoration workforce through academic education at the undergraduate and graduate levels and continuing education for professionals. Education endeavors will seek to assist all learners to think critically, apply reason, derive objective answers and understand the ramifications of each decision.

Core Values

The Ecological Restoration Institute is an academic institution born out of deep commitment to restoration of degraded ecosystems and the obligation to pass along ecologically healthy communities to future generations. We are dedicated to combining traditional best practices of land management with new and innovative strategies that help nature and communities heal, and that reconnect people to the land through sustainable, ecologically informed resource use. We view humans as members of a community of organisms with a range of unique niches, roles, and responsibilities in their ecosystems.

We will conduct all activities with objectivity, open-mindedness, flexibility, honesty, and full public accountability. We are dedicated to maintaining a high degree of excellence by acquiring thorough knowledge, conducting carefully reasoned analysis, and systematically checking the application of the outcomes against factual evidence. We embrace the principles of adaptive ecosystem management and learning by doing. Our work will proceed with humility and respect all life forms.

We will actively promote interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to developing solutions, and are committed to translating those solutions into action.

We strive to treat all human communities with respect, integrity, and appreciation for their different perspectives.

We are committed to creating an intellectually and culturally diverse workplace where knowledge sharing, innovation, and creativity are encouraged, and where all individuals feel valued, supported, and encouraged to achieve their full potential.

Structure

There are two notable organizational changes that will be implemented during the next strategic plan. First we will create and encourage more interaction between research and outreach staff. This interaction will serve to identify emerging land management issues and improve coordination between outreach staff and the biophysical and socio-political scientists to produce the information required to resolve these issues. The ERI will actively pursue the use of multiple lines of evidence to support recommendations to improve the ecological health of forests and the socio-economic health of human communities. The second structural change is to consolidate outreach functions. The agency outreach team will report to the associate director for administration, agency and community outreach. In addition, the Editor/Writer will supervise the web manager and writer.