ERI in the News
As Coconino County’s wildfires approach control, what’s ahead?
SAM MCLAUGHLIN Sun Staff Reporter Aug 15, 2025 A month after two major fires roared into life in northern Coconino County, the end of active firefighting operations seems to be finally approaching. The White Sage Fire has been contained after burning almost 60,000 acres, and the Dragon Bravo [...]
Fire Ecology Chats Podcast, Ep. 64
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A Legacy of Mentorship: Don Normandin Retires from NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute
Don Normandin, the research lab manager for the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, is retiring after 24 years of service to forest health research and ERI’s student research program. Normandin’s journey at ERI began in the early 2000s as an NAU student seeking a degree in parks [...]
30 years after the deadly Dude Fire, work begins in the forest to prevent another disaster
PAYSON — On June 27, 1990, two stories dominated the headlines in Arizona. One documented the hottest day on record in Phoenix, where the temperature peaked at 122 degrees. The second story reported that six firemen had been killed in the Dude Fire. Now, 33 years later, forest managers [...]
Revolutionizing what we understand about America’s forests
Forests and the carbon they capture play a pivotal role in combating climate change, and a new study co-authored by NAU researchers is set to transform forest conservation efforts nationwide by providing new, more accurate models for calculating and predicting how much carbon they hold. The U.S. Forest Service, [...]
U.S. Forest Service proposes to protect old growth trees
The Forest Service recently released a proposal to revise its forest management plans nationwide to protect old growth trees. It’s a response to an executive order issued by the Biden administration in 2022. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke about this unprecedented effort with Andrew Sanchez Meador, executive director of the [...]
Cutting trees, setting fires could help protect Flagstaff from new disaster
In the forest around Hart Prairie, about 14 miles north of Flagstaff, trees appear to be uprooting themselves and walking across the forest floor. But the sound of the forest is mechanical, a hum filling the air, disrupting the peace of the ponderosa pine forest. A feller buncher — [...]
As many forests fail to recover from wildfires, replanting efforts face huge odds — and obstacles
BELLVUE, Colo. (AP) — Camille Stevens-Rumann crouched in the dirt and leaned over evergreen seedlings, measuring how much each had grown in seven months. “That’s two to three inches of growth on the spruce,” said Stevens-Rumann, interim director at the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute. Her research team is monitoring [...]