Across Our Forest: A Busy Weekend at Buck Springs

July 2016

For several years now, the Arizona Elk Society (AES) has organized a volunteer work weekend near Buck Springs on the southern end of the Coconino National Forest (CNF). This year’s event was held June 11-12. Over 100 volunteers, mostly from AES and Friends of Northern AZ Forests (FoNAF), completed a remarkable suite of activities under the direction of CNF staff Tom Runyon and Mike Dechter. Volunteers rebuilt an exclosure fence surrounding Lower Buck Springs designed to protect a small grove of aspen from heavy browsing and to reduce compaction in the area around the spring box. This entailed placing over 1,000 linear feet of 8’ tall woven wire fence.

In addition, volunteers thinned encroaching small conifers from an ephemeral stream channel at McClintock Draw while others placed numerous rocks in the channel to reduce head-cutting in the stream channel. Newly-repaired exclosures along Forest Road 321C and in Merrit Draw also received Bebb’s willow plantings, and several miles of old or damaged barbed-wire fencing were re-moved as they were no longer needed for pasture or allotment boundaries. The AES wants to thank all volunteers and CNF staff who helped make this weekend a true achievement for the forest, water, and wildlife resources! Submitted by Tom Mackin, 4FRI Stakeholder and member of both AES and FoNAF

Finding Common Ground: 4FRI Collaborative Planning Takes to the Forest

May 1, 2018 April 7, 2021 webmaster-eri@nau.edu Restoration in Action

Finding Common Ground: 4FRI Collaborative Planning Takes to the Forest The second large analysis, the Rim Country Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), picks up on a challenging aspect of planning that needed further collaboration and support from stakeholders after the first EIS—that of managing “stands with a preponderance of large, young trees” (SPLYTs). They’re not “old […]

A View From the Inside: In the Field with Mixed Conifers

May 1, 2018 April 7, 2021 webmaster-eri@nau.edu Restoration in Action

A View From the Inside: In the Field with Mixed Conifers On June 8, the U.S. Forest Service and the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) invited 4FRI Stakeholders into the field on the Black Mesa district of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to initiate discussion and share perspectives on potential mixed conifer restoration treatments. A turnout of […]

Moving into the Digital Age: Tablet Technology & Trees

July 1, 2016 April 5, 2021 webmaster-eri@nau.edu Restoration in Action

Moving into the Digital Age: Tablet Technology & Trees To reduce the time and cost associated with traditional paint-tree marking practices, forest managers in northern Arizona are testing different tree marking methods. In partnership with Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Coconino National Forest, and Perkins Timber Harvesting, The Nature Conservancy tested new technology […]

Across Our Forest: A Busy Weekend at Buck Springs

July 1, 2016 April 7, 2021 webmaster-eri@nau.edu Restoration in Action

Across Our Forest: A Busy Weekend at Buck Springs July 2016 For several years now, the Arizona Elk Society (AES) has organized a volunteer work weekend near Buck Springs on the southern end of the Coconino National Forest (CNF). This year’s event was held June 11-12. Over 100 volunteers, mostly from AES and Friends of […]

A View From the Inside: SRP Flowtography™

April 1, 2016 April 7, 2021 webmaster-eri@nau.edu Restoration in Action

Left: July 25, 2013 @ 14:50 – Right: July 25, 2013 @ 15:05 A View From the Inside: SRP Flowtography™ April, 2016 The Salt River Project (SRP) has recently pioneered an innovative and low-cost technology that gathers images of stream depth information. SRP Flowtography™ is a minimally invasive method of time-lapse photography equipped with event gages designed to […]