Cooperating Agencies:

• Northern Arizona University


• City of Flagstaff Fire Department

Location:

Projects are located in several areas of the NAU south campus. One project is located in Sinclair Wash just uphill from the Urban Trail and another adjacent to Lonetree Road just south of the I-40 overpass (directly across from new Coconino Community College campus).

Date Initiated:

1998

Description:

The campus restoration demonstration projects are composed of two separate study sites. The site along Sinclair Wash was treated in 1998 to provide a demonstration for the NAU community of forest restoration methods being developed and refined by the ERI.  The site was divided into treatment and control units, and five permanent monitoring plots were installed, three in the treatment unit and two in the control unit, to track changes in the ecosystem after restoration treatments. Understory plant cover in the treated unit has increased tremendously with the opening up of the tree canopy. Many of the plant species now thriving in the area are desirable natives, but unfortunately a wide variety of exotic invasives (probably already present in the seed bank due to heavy foot traffic in the area and previous disturbance history) have also benefited from the treatment.  A recent NAU forestry graduate student, Jan Busco, conducted a study here on one such invasive species (Dalmatian toadflax, or Linaria dalmatica) to examine the effects of native species competition on this noxious weed. Results from her study can be found here. (Warning: May take a long time to download; file size = 1.2 MB)

The second site in the campus restoration demonstration projects is located along Lonetree Road southeast of the campus proper.  Since 1999 the site has been used as a living laboratory to demonstrate methods of forest restoration treatment and monitoring to students enrolled in FOR 382/582 (Ecological Restoration Applications), with a new portion of the site treated every year or so.  Projects are inventoried, thinned, and monitored by ERI staff and students, and prescribed burning is carried out with the assistance of the Flagstaff City Fire Department.  Students Christine Brown & Michael Jow from the Fall 2004 class created a PowerPoint Presentation on the integration of GIS technologies with restoration treatments, which can be accessed for more information and photos of the site.

For More Information:

• Contact Mark Daniels, at

Publications:

• Covington, W.W., P.Z. Fulé, T.M. Alcoze, and R.K. Vance. 2000. Learning by doing: education in ecological restoration at Northern Arizona University. Journal of Forestry 98(10):30-34.