Our Mission
ERI serves diverse audiences with objective science and implementation strategies that support ecological restoration and climate adaptation on Western forest landscapes.
Our Leadership
The Ecological Restoration Institute is an independent research branch of Northern Arizona University. It was founded by forest ecologist and NAU Emeritus Professor W. Wallace Covington, who began studying the ecology of southwestern ponderosa pine forests in the mid-1970s. Wally Covington retired in January 2020.
Andrew Sánchez Meador, PhD, was appointed as the new ERI Executive Director. Sánchez Meador is a well-known innovator in the areas of forest and landscape-level data collection and analysis. His forward-looking approach to using remote sensing tools, data visualization techniques and emerging technology help to modernize and advance the restoration of forest ecosystems.
As executive director, Sánchez Meador works to advance the institute’s focus on restoring western forest landscapes using innovative technologies, service to Native American tribes, promoting novel solutions for the use of tree biomass and wood products, and actively engaging with the people and communities that influence land management and depend on these forests.
Sánchez Meador joined the ERI from NAU’s School of Forestry, where he served as faculty for eight years and is an associate professor of forest biometrics and quantitative ecology. Sánchez Meador’s scholarly interests have largely been focused on ecological restoration of frequent-fire forests of the southwestern United States; improving scientists’ understanding of how disturbances, such as wildfire, shape forests; and championing the incorporation of new technologies in forestry and ecological restoration practices.
Prior to teaching at NAU’s School of Forestry, Sánchez Meador worked for the U.S. Forest Service Washington Office as a biometrician and the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico as the forest restoration program manager. He has served on the boards of the Society of American Foresters and the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership. In 2017, the School of Forestry at NAU awarded him Teacher of the Year.
Our History
In 1996, Wally Covington became the director of the new Ecological Restoration Program at NAU. The academic program operated within the university’s School of Forestry. Researchers from the program began to work with land managers to design, implement, and monitor restoration treatments at a variety of sites in the Southwest.
In 2000, with the aid of federal funding from the Bureau of Land Management, the program evolved into the ERI. Four years later, in October 2004, ERI became one of three state-level institutes approved by Congress to work to solve problems of forest health and unnatural wildfire through science-based approaches. The other two institutes are based in Colorado at Colorado State University and New Mexico at New Mexico Highlands University. The three institutes collaborate closely on research, education, and outreach aimed at implementing and improving restoration work in the interior West. To read more about the collective institutes, known as the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes, visit sweri.eri.nau.edu.
