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The 7,000 Foot/800,000 Acre Advantage Northern Arizona University offers optimal access to field stations monitoring environmental and land use change in the Greater Grand Canyon ecosystem. Few universities can offer their students and faculty the the unique access to field stations for environmental and cultural research that Northern Arizona University can. A leader in field station opportunities, NAU has developed 800,000 acres of diverse field station units from Fossil Creek in the Verde Valley to the Centennial Forest's Merriam-Powell Field Station to the EMA Foundation's partnership with Babbitt Ranches. NAU provides geographic proximity to a variety of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems within an hour of campus. Starting at 7,000 feet of elevation on the edge of Flagstaff, researchers can roam Sonoran Desert scrub, Rocky Mountain coniferous forests, or continue northward toward Grand Canyon National Park. These various field station units each have unique issues associated with them: the viable management of working landscapes in grassland and woodland ecosystems; the sustainable use of coniferous forests; and the restoration of upland watersheds previously dammed for hydroelectric power generation. All of NAU's field stations lie within the Colorado Plateau ecoregion, rated by WWF and TNC as being the top ecoregion in North America in endemism, and among the top five in biodiversity or species richness. The Colorado Plateau is exceptionally diverse in terms of existing Native American land use traditions, with Hopi, Havasupai, Navajo, and Yavapai-Apache neighbors still dwelling within 30 miles of the field station sites. Collaborations with tribes, private ranchers and federal agency land stewards make the rewards of working with NAU's field stations overtly satisfying! These diverse entities are eager to learn of the implications of our research and monitoring results so they can incorporate them into their own stewardship efforts. |
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