ERI in the News
Study: Forest Restoration Saves Carbon In Long Run
A new study by The Nature Conservancy shows forest thinning and prescribed burns cause a short-term loss of carbon to the atmosphere, but save carbon in the long run. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, that’s because healthy forests have bigger trees and experience fewer catastrophic wildfires. The study used computer [...]
Chip-And-Ship Forest Clearing May Help Prevent Wildfire Disasters
A huge mechanical claw scoops up several ponderosa pine logs and feeds them into an industrial chipper. Thousands of wood chunks are then blasted into a large shipping container. "It goes anywhere from one to four to three up to seven small ones can just kind of throw in [...]
‘Chip and Ship’ Project Aims to Speed up Forest Restoration in Northern Arizona
Large-scale forest restoration in northern Arizona is behind schedule. One of the major hurdles is that there are very few places for low-value logs and slash to go once it’s cut. It’s known as the “biomass bottleneck,” but a new pilot program spearheaded by Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration [...]
Research partnership between NAU, Salt River Project provides solutions to Arizona’s problems
What effect do zero-net homes have on the energy grid? What’s the dollar value of a healthy ecosystem, and what does that look like in the ever-changing Southwest? What are the best methods to protect forests from catastrophic fires? How does all of this affect the average resident of [...]
NAU pilot project tests exporting wood products via railway to speed forest restoration
A pilot project at Camp Navajo has the potential to unlock a critical bottleneck in forest restoration and wildfire prevention efforts across northern Arizona by creating markets for restoration byproducts like wood chips from small-diameter trees. Read More
NAU Shipping Wood Chips To South Korea To Help With Wildfire Prevention
Northern Arizona University has worked with multiple agencies for the past year to ship wood chips to South Korea. The process starts Wednesday, and it will help forest restoration efforts, prevent wildfires and bring in income to the state. Read More
Museum Fire Burned in Recently Thinned Areas; Consumed Log Decks, Slash
The Museum Fire north of Flagstaff ignited in an area of forest recently thinned by the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project, a voter-approved forest restoration initiative. Log decks and slash piles were still on the ground. As KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, it’s unclear how that may have affected the fire’s [...]
Mysteries of the Museum Fire scar
As forest fire officials continue to contain the Museum Fire’s growth, some mysteries remain, such as how severely the flames burned through the forests of the Dry Lake Hills and what the fire has left behind.... Read More