EPISODE SUMMARY
What is it like to watch vegetation type-conversion in real time? How are invasive grasses changing the ecology of the desert and broader Southwest? What’s being done to protect and restore Southwest ponderosa pine forests?
This episode with Tonto National Forest fire ecologist Mary Lata dives into the fire regimes of the Southwest, how they’re changing by the year, how invasive grasses are influencing those changes, and particularly how she’s beginning to see more fire in the Sonoran Desert, which historically did not burn very often. We also spoke about her work within the Four Forest Restoration Project, which aims to restore and protect the significant ponderosa pine forests within the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab and Tonto national forests.
Mary was preparing for a public meeting the day of our conversation and had a few great slides that she showed me during our conversation, so I’ve uploaded the full video of our conversation to Youtube for folks who would like some more context for the topics we discussed in the podcast.
This episode and our entire series on Fire in the Southwest was made possible with support from The Southwest Fire Science Consortium and the Arizona Wildfire Initiative.
Cover Photo courtesy of Frankie Lopez.
Listen to the previous episode here
