The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee and NFL Foundation have awarded $205,000 to the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University as part of the community campaign for Super Bowl XLIX, which takes place Feb. 1 in Glendale.
“The grant money given to us will have lasting impacts up to 20 years from now, and will support many students conducting field work on this project,” said Wally Covington, NAU Regents’ professor and executive director of the Ecological Restoration Institute. “It is not only important for the university, but also the state of Arizona in helping to protect local and statewide water supplies through landscape-scale restoration approaches.”
Covington said the grant will help ERI leverage existing funds from the Salt River Project and other sources to continue work on the long-term effects of forest restoration on watershed health.
NAU is one of six Arizona nonprofit recipients of the legacy grants.