Large billowing smoke from the Calwood Fire, 2020.

Small prescribed burn in grassy and lightly forested area.

Large machine moving a felled tree.

“We’re faced with a Catch-22: to have low-severity fire, we need low fuel loads. To get low fuel loads, we need low-severity fire. How do we reintroduce low-severity fire when vegetation has already accumulated to extreme levels?”

lnkd.in/gtWV73yj

Photos: William Bowman and Andrew Slack

Firefighter uses a drip torch to light a prescribed burn in a grassy and lightly wooded area.

Interested in fuel treatments and wildfires?

Join us March 19th at 10am MST for a webinar hosted by the Missoula Fire Lab, researchers Anson Call & Nate Tomczyk will break down what the data say about treatment effects on wildfires.

Register: events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/d74bbe...

Mapping Community Capacity To reduce vulnerability to wildfire in Colorado, USA

New research maps local capacity and wildfire risk in Colorado: communities with high risk may have low capacity. Well-resourced areas often access more funding than others. Effective policy means meeting communities where they are. Storymap: tinyurl.com/3cfb9h8p
#Wildfire

Fuel treatments impact burn severity, even in extreme conditions. They moderate wildfire severity & boost forest resilience. But success depends on forest type, weather & history. #WildfireScience

Read the study here: cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...

Logging and Forest Roads Institute 2025 YouTube video by Ecological Restoration Institute

The Logging and Forest Roads Institute (LARI) continues a 40-year U.S. Forest Service tradition of providing hands-on training in sustainable timber harvesting and forest road design. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTV...

Researchers at the Ecological Restoration Institute are exploring how biochar can boost land management, from restoring soils to capturing carbon. tinyurl.com/5y2555hk

Yesterday at the Flagstaff Festival of Science, we explored how LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) lets us see forests in 3D detail...from tree spacing and canopy layers to surface fuels.

Strong partnerships build strong forests. 🌲 Since 2021, the Ecological Restoration Institute and USDA Forest Service have teamed up on the Logging & Forest Roads Institute: training pros in logging systems, road engineering & sustainable forest management. #ForestRestoration #WorkingForests

New in Scientific Data: TWIG, a nationwide open-access database linking fuel treatments with wildfire records. By making big data accessible, TWIG helps us ask bigger questions, and find smarter solutions, for forests and communities.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
tinyurl.com/2rkce67y

Kachina Peaks Wilderness long-term monitoring summer 2025 YouTube video by Ecological Restoration Institute

For 20+ years, we’ve tracked forest health on the San Francisco Peaks 🌲 This summer, students Lexi, Dan, and Caiden helped measure trees, compare decades of data, and gain hands-on experience—all supporting science-based forest management.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y99p...

Heading to the 17th Biennial Conference of Science & Management at NAU? Don’t miss ERI sessions on forest restoration, collaboration, biochar & more! 🌲 Science + partnerships shaping resilient Southwest forests. #ColoradoPlateau #ForestRestoration

Catch the Ecological Restoration Institute at the #FlagstaffFestivalofScience! Learn more: scifest.org/schedule-2025/

Episode 64: Bucking the suppression status quo: incentives to shift the wildfire management parad... YouTube video by Association for Fire Ecology

Listen to the Association for Fire Ecology podcast featuring ERI's Scott Franz. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg8N...

Oh my goodness, hello!

Pinyon-Juniper LIDAR Research 2025 YouTube video by Ecological Restoration Institute

Ever seen lidar in action? Our folks this summer are using it to better guide fuel reduction, support community wildfire resilience, and provide better data for local land managers in pinyon-juniper woodlands.

youtu.be/ov2PEBrxUwo?...

To evaluate restoration effectiveness at a landscape scale, we monitored changes in forest structure and tree growth across a 5,224-acre ponderosa pine–Gambel oak forest.

21 years after treatment, total tree density had declined by 56%, and structural heterogeneity had increased

To evaluate restoration effectiveness at a landscape scale, ERI scientists monitored changes in forest structure and tree growth across a 5,224-acre ponderosa pine–Gambel oak forest in AZ.

21 years after treatment, total tree density had declined by 56%, and structural heterogeneity had increased.

Since 1995, researchers at the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) have been studying long-term forest restoration at Mt. Trumbull to understand how thinning and prescribed fire influence ponderosa pine ecosystems over time.

Penstemon clutei field work with Jillian Bennett 2025 YouTube video by Ecological Restoration Institute

Big penstemon fan? Do you know about the endemic species we've been studying for decades? Learn more with our student researcher, Jillian, as she describes what her fieldwork is like. youtu.be/dFin5mJtZH0

How do we measure wildfire treatment effectiveness and support better decisions on the ground?

Join us for a webinar on July 23rd at 1pm MT!

📊 Geospatial tools

🧠 Social science

🔥 Effectiveness research

💵 ROI studies

Register: tnc.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

#WildfireScience #FireEcology

Crews are measuring different parameters, like diameter at breast height (DBH), tree diversity, canopy cover, and other data points that we can compare with data collected over twenty years ago! By contrasting these same plots, we can better understand changes happening through the decades.

What’s a day in the life of our researchers during the summer? One of our crews is currently in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness area within Flagstaff’s San Francisco Peaks, collecting data to better understand our forests.

... by making firewood available to the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, and local northern Arizona communities. Our needs assessment documented local firewood needs and capacities for distribution in wood banks – read more to see our results! eri.nau.edu/wood-for-life/

The Ecological Restoration Institute recently completed a needs assessment for the Wood For Life (WFL) partnership in Northern Arizona. WFL is a collaborative network supporting active forest management and restoration...

A Legacy of Mentorship: Don Normandin Retires from NAU's Ecological Restoration Institute - Ecological Restoration Institute Don Normandin, the research lab manager for the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, is retiring after 24 years of service to forest health research and ERI’s student resea...

“Don has been the quiet force behind so much of ERI’s success over the past two decades,” said ERI’s Executive Director Andrew Sanchez-Meador. “His unwavering dedication, care for our students, and steadfast belief in our mission have shaped the culture of this place."

🌱In fire-adapted ecosystems, fire supports soil health by releasing and cycling nutrients and stimulating plant growth. Low-intensity burns clear debris and aid plant growth. In contrast, high-severity fires damage soil structure, kill beneficial organisms, and cause erosion and nutrient loss.

Tools and Resources to Reduce Home Wildfire Risk:
www.swfireconsortium.org/2024/04/17/h...
www.santafefireshed.org/prepareyourh...
extension.arizona.edu/sites/extens...
youtu.be/uJyCDweXrzc?...

Home with too much vegetation around it and a lot of pine needles, putting it at risk to wildfire. There are also trash bags and a rake, showing that they are trying to reduce risk.

This #WildfireAwarenessMonth, access trusted resources to protect what matters most. Creating defensible space and reducing wildfire risk around your home can start with a rake and a few bags. Check out the guides and tools linked to this post.
#WildfirePreparedness #FireSafeCommunities

Understanding and Applying Wildfire Risk Science and Decision Support Tools: A Summary of Projects from the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes  - SWERI Home Briefing Paper: Understanding and Applying Wildfire Risk Science and Decision Support Tools Managed wildfire policy and social science resources  Journal Article: From flexibility to feasibility: iden...

Our sister institute CFRI works closely to implement PODs workshops for partners. Learn more: sweri.org/wildfire-ris...