In 2024, the ERI’s Ecology Team will conduct field projects to address current and emerging questions related to climate and fire impacts on forests, forest restoration treatment effectiveness, and understory plant responses. The ecology group also welcomes additions to its undergraduate research and field collection teams. Highlights are featured below.
- Data collection for several field projects this summer include:
- Remeasurement of monitoring plots on the San Francisco Peaks, north of Flagstaff, Arizona.
- Assessment of fire effects at our long-term study site in southwestern Colorado.
- 3D fuels and fire behavior modeling project (funded by the Arizona Board of Regents).
- Investigation of understory responses to fuel reduction treatments in pinyon-juniper near Mt Taylor, New Mexico.
- The team also hired three new students this spring for its undergraduate program. Caiden Dwyer, Adam Manager, and Madison See, will join Erin Howard, Emmie Vander Pluym, Mariola Barrera, and Jillian Bennett and will assist in field data collection efforts for ERI summer projects.
- Three undergraduate students—Erin, Emmie, and Jillian—will be collecting field data for their undergraduate research projects.
