Sonoran desert view showing saguaro cactus surrounded by tall buffelgrass

Monitoring and Removal of Invasive Grasses for Restoration of Dry Desert Systems

IN A NUTSHELLA panel of researchers and managers discusses the impact of non-native invasive grasses on dry desert systems and various methods to remove, monitor, or slow their spread. The fire regime of dry desert systems, such as the Sonoran, historically consisted of infrequent, low intensity, size-limited fires. Native grasses and other vegetation, which grow …

Vegetation Type Conversion

Presenter: Christopher H. Guiterman, Research Scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Date: September 21, 2022 at 12:00pm AZ / 1:00pm MDT Ecosystems of the Western United States are experiencing vegetation type conversions (VTC) in response to …

Wildfire, Human Health, and Environmental Justice

Presenters: Savannah D’Evelyn, Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Washington, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences and Ed Smith, Terrestrial forest Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy’s California Program. Date: July 19, 2022 11am AZ / 12pm MDT Increasing wildfire size and severity across the western United States has created an environmental and social crisis …

Telegraph Fire-10 months Post-Fire

We hosted a single day field trip that made four stops within the 2021 Telegraph Fire perimeter. The Telegraph Fire, human caused and still under investigation, started 1.5 miles southeast of Superior, Arizona on June 4, 2021 and burned 180,757 acres before being fully contained approximately one month later. The fire was primarily carried by …

Post-fire flooding showing sand bags and a street that looks like a river, it is full of muddy water.

Post-fire Flooding: The Museum Fire

The Museum Fire in 2019 burned 1,961 acres and a record monsoon season in 2021 caused post-fire flooding from the burn scar, which affected many homes and businesses. The Story Map aims to outline the full timeline of the fire, the aftermath and flooding, and considerations for the future. Topics include the Flagstaff Watershed Protection …

Postfire Management in Frequent-Fire Conifer Forests

Presenter: Dr. Jens T. Stevens, National Program Lead for the Wildland Fire and Fuels Research, USDA Forest ServiceDate: January 19, 2022 12pm Mountain Standard Time The increasing incidence of large wildfires with extensive stand-replacing effects across the southwestern United States is altering the contemporary forest management template within historically frequent-fire conifer forests. While management of …

Repeat Photography and Post-Fire Ecosystem Change in SE Arizona

Date: October 26, 2021 1pm AZ/2pm MDTPresenters: Jim Malusa, University of Arizona, with an introduction by Don Falk, University of Arizona While making a vegetation map of the Chiricahua Mts in 2010, I took georeferenced photos and notes on the canopy cover of dominant species, in ecosystems ranging from grassland to spruce-fir.  The next year, …