Northern Arizona University will put its environmental restoration leadership into action during an upcoming conference at its Ecological Restoration Institute.
More than 250 forest managers from around the country will be on campus from Oct. 24-26 for Conserving and Restoring Frequent Fire Landscapes of the West: Linking Science, Collaboration and Practice. The conference will provide information to land managers who are working to improve the health of forest ecosystems.
Hosted by the Ecological Restoration Institute, the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University and the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at New Mexico University, the conference will cover topics related to the realities, constraints, opportunities and solutions involved in restoring frequent-fire forested ecosystems.
“This conference will bring together land managers, stakeholders, and scientists to enhance their skills in integrating science, collaboration and management practice,” said Chuck Bullington, program coordinator for the institute. “The ERI is recognized by many sources, including federal legislation, as a leader in developing forest ecosystem restoration knowledge and collaborating with land managers and others.”
He said the conference is an example of the ERI working to provide the best applied restoration knowledge to the public, land management agencies, governmental organizations and academic researchers.
“This conference is important to NAU in that our expertise and willingness to openly share information, and work to discover new information, helps our constituents see us as a respectable, unbiased and engaged partner in solving the problem of forest health for society,” Bullington said.
Participants will take field trips to local forest areas and hear an array of speakers discuss the best available science available for improving ecosystems. Featured speakers include Joel Holtrop, deputy chief, U.S. Forest Service, National Forest System; Wally Covington, conference chair and director of the ERI; Terry Daniels, a professor of psychology and renewable natural resources at the University of Arizona; and Tom Sisk, a professor of environmental studies at NAU.
The ERI is a pioneer in researching, implementing and monitoring ecological restoration of southwestern ponderosa pine forests.
For information or to register, go to www.eri.nau.edu/cms/.