Ecologists are experimenting with overcrowded forests to explore diverse options for restoration.

NAU.PH.2001.20.1.148 Coconino National Forest, Friedlein Prairie: site of the Leroux Fire which started June 11, 2001.
NAU.PH.2001.20.1.9
Schultz Pass Road closed June 11, 2001 due to the Leroux Fire. Coconino National Forest - Peaks Ranger District Fire Information Officer Brian Poturalski is in the background.
NAU.PH.2001.20.1.229
View of Rogers Lake and the surrounding Coconino National Forest taken from the Woody Mountain Lookout Tower, July 6, 2001.
NAU.PH.2002.21.15
Jack Galbreath watering pine seedlings at Mormon Lake Guard Station, June '83.
NAU.PH.2002.21.18 John Whitaker in the Whitman mechanical tree planter. Planting bare root ponderosa pine south of Flagstaff Airport, 3/27/84.
NAU.PH.2002.21.36
Mop up in Sand Point Creek after blowup. Sand Point Fire, Lewis & Clark N.F., 7/12/85.
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Outlet Fire, N. Kaibab, July 2000.
NAU.PH.2001.20.1.57 View of an extremely dense area of ponderosa pines, also known as a doghair thicket, which was completely burned as a result of the Leroux Fire in the Coconino National Forest, June 12, 2001.
NAU.PH.2001.20.1.262
Smoke rises in the air as firefighters conduct a prescribed burn in the Coconino National Forest near Highway 180, July 19, 2001.
NAU.PH.2002.21.88 Geronimo Fire escapes containment and burns up to the rim of Sycamore Canyon, 6/1/91.
Melissa Bardsley

Melissa Bardsley
Timber marker and engine crew member, 1988 fire season

"…we could measure the width of trees, the height of trees, and we could grade trees to decide what quality lumber we were marking."

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Brian Nowicki

Brian Nowicki
Conservation biologist

"One of the reasons why [dwarf mistletoe] is currently infecting or infesting [ponderosa pine] stands at a level that appears to be so damaging is partly because of the lack of fire in the ecosystems."

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Bruce Koyiyumptewa

Bruce Koyiyumptewa
Silviculturalist, past helitac crew member

"Maybe because we have devastated the habitat…we have lost the population of these tropical and neo-tropical migratory birds, which are so important to the Hopi ceremonial cycle."

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Donna Ashworth

Donna Ashworth
Author, nineteen-year veteran of the Woody Mountain Lookout

"Some of these little trees are sixty years old. They haven't had room enough to grow, not enough light, not enough water."

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H.B. "Doc" Smith

H.B. "Doc" Smith
 Program liaison for the NAU Ecological Restoration Institute

"We need to prepare the forest… Then we can begin to bring fire back into the ecosystem in a more naturally-occurring condition. That is, the fire would… be burning with flame lengths of one or two or three feet, instead of flame lengths of two or three hundred feet."

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Diane Vosick

Diane Vosick
Senior program representative, Northern Arizona University's Ecological Restoration Institute

"We do know that if we bring back fire, the forest will begin to heal itself, and will support those systems that will hopefully bring back these species that should be there."

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