Completed FWPP Monitoring Project Reports:

Forest Ecosystem Assesment in Observatory Mesa Natural Area

Working together, FWPP and the NAU School of Forestry have turned Observatory Mesa into an outdoor learning laboratory for future forest managers and scientists! During the of 2017, the ‘Forest Ecosystem Assessment’ class of upper division NAU forestry students established permanent forestry plots across Observatory Mesa (Monitoring plots across Obervatory Mesa).

The permanent plots will be used to gather a range of biophysical monitoring data that will be compiled and tracked for many years to come. The monitoring data will include variables such as ground fuel, coarse woody debris, under-story vegetation and shrubs, tree density and volume, and standing dead trees (snags). Photo points will also be established to visually track forest changes over time.

The goal of the project will meet two major objectives; 1) to provide undergraduate NAU forestry students with technical knowledge, skills, and experience in gathering biophysical data, analyzing, and interpreting ecological data and 2) to provide a long term monitoring project for FWPP to track the effects of forest thinning activities on Observatory Mesa over time.

The first round of data from this project has been collected, analyazed, and summarized. As the City of Flagstaff continues to manage Observatory Mesa, we nnow have the ability to track those changes over time. See the brief here: Observatory Mesa results 2018

Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) Monitoring Report 2017

This report is provided by: USDA Forest Service – Coconino National Forest, Flagstaff Ranger District

The project proposes landscape scale restoration that has the potential to affect more than 15 known Mexican Spotted Owl (MSO) protected activity centers (PACs). PACs are intended to sustain and enhance areas that are presently, recently or historically occupied by breeding MSOs, and must be at least 600 acres (USFWS 2012). A PAC is not intended to encompass the entire home range of an owl (USFWS 2012). For more information about the MSO, please refer to the 2012 Recovery plan for the Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida), First Revision, (USFWS 2012).

Included in this report are the results of the Flagstaff Ranger District 2017 MSO monitoring and inventory for the FWPP project area. Full report: 2017 _FWPP_MSO_Monitoring_Report

Mexican Spotted Owl Habitat Monitoring in the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project, Mormon Mountain Area

In 2015, the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University continued progress on a project to investigate Mexican Spotted Owl (MSO) responses to changes in habitat characteristics associated with the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project. See the following progress report of pre-treatment data: FWPP 2015 ERI MSO Report

Observatory Mesa Stand Attributes and FWPP Mechanical Treatments

NAU Forestry students conducted a simple inventory of a 490-acres area west of Flagstaff located on Observatory Mesa. The primary objectives were to provide the students with experience implementing fixed-area plot sampling and estimating current (and previous) stand conditions. The student project results demonstrate what type of forest stand existed before FWPP mechanical thinning treatment, and how stand conditions changed post treatment. NAU Inventory – Observatory Mesa Summary

Tree Thinning, Drying, and Insects!

One of the most costly aspects of thinning around the Flagstaff area is the cost to transport the wood material. One idea is to allow cut trees to remain in the forest, giving them time to dry. As they lose moisture, they will also become less heavy which may present an opportunity to reduce the cost of transportation. See a preliminary report from an NAU School of Forestry graduate student exploring this question: Bundles Beetles – All sites complete report for Spring Summer and Fall 2017

Ecosystem Service Valuation through Wildﬁre Risk Mitigation: Design, Governance, and Outcomes of the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP)

The Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP) is a bond-ﬁnanced wildﬁre risk mitigation partnership and PWS program in Northern Arizona, the only forest management project that utilizes a municipal bond as the ﬁnancial mechanism in conjunction with a partnership governance structure to invest in federal land management. The purpose of this research was to describe this new governance structure to understand the potential beneﬁts to communities and federal land management agencies for protecting watershed services. For full report: Miller_forests-Ecosystem Service Valuation

Linking Payments for Watershed Services and Wildfire Risk Mitigation: Institutional Design and Governance of the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP)

This thesis explores the gap between theory and practice, by posing two questions: 1) FWPP institutional design and its applications to the national forest management community, and 2) stakeholder perceptions of the following institutional performance outcomes- efficacy/effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability. For full thesis report: Miller_Roy_Thesis

Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) Monitoring Report 2016

This report is provided by: USDA Forest Service – Coconino National Forest, Flagstaff Ranger District

Included in this report are the results of the Flagstaff Ranger District 2015 and 2016 MSO monitoring and inventory for the FWPP project area. For full report click here: 2016_final_fwpp-mso-monitoring-report

FWPP Mexican Spotted Owl Monitoring Report 2015

This report is provided by: USDA Forest Service – Coconino National Forest, Flagstaff Ranger District

The FWPP project proposes landscape scale restoration that has the potential to affect more than 15 known Mexican Spotted Owl (MSO) protected activity centers (PACs). PACs are intended to sustain and enhance areas that are presently, recently or historically occupied by breeding MSOs, and must be at least 600 acres (USFWS 2012). A PAC is not intended to encompass the entire home range of an owl (USFWS 2012). For more information about the MSO, please refer to the 2012 Recovery plan for the Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida), First Revision, (USFWS 2012).

Included in this report are the results of the Flagstaff Ranger District 2015 MSO monitoring and inventory for the FWPP project area. For full report click here: 2015 FWPP MSO Monitoring Report_Final

Mexican Spotted Owl Habitat Monitoring Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project Dry Lake Hills Area

In summer of 2014, the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) initiated installation of forest structure, vegetation, and fuels monitoring plots, and collected pre-treatment data in the Dry Lake Hills
(DLH) area of FWPP. Specific objectives of 2014 work were to do the following: 1) quantify forest structure, vegetation, and fuels characteristics in PACs before hazardous fuels reduction treatments are implemented; 2) quantify forest structure, vegetation, and fuels characteristics in reference PACs that will not be treated under FWPP; and 3) make data summaries available to USFWS researchers and US Forest Service staff for their analysis. This report summarizes the findings, discussion and recomendations. For full report click here: FWPP_2015_ERI_ProgressReport

Bat species composition and activity in varying tree densities on Observatory Mesa, Flagstaff, Arizona

As ecological restoration occurs in the southwest United States, it is important to monitor the effects of the restoration on wildlife species that use these areas for habitat. Bats are an important group of animals that provide many ecosystem services, such as eating insects that are crop pests (Boyles et al. 2011, Kunz et al. 2011). Many species of bats use ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in northern Arizona as places to forage for food and roost (Morrell et al. 1999, Rabe et al. 1998). How does ecological restoration of these forests near Flagstaff affect the bat activity and species activity in those forests? For full report: Starbuck_Bat_Project

Habitat Use by Abert’s Squirrels (Sciurus Aberti) in Managed Forests

We trapped and radiocollared Abert’s squirrels (Sciurus aberti) in restoration-treated ponderosa pine forests to determine changes in home range sizes as a result of restoration treatments. We report evidence that winter vs. nonwinter home range of Abert’s squirrels was not different pre- vs. posttreatment. These results are important for land managers in designing forest treatments that reduce the risk of stand-replacing wildﬁre while providing habitat for the Abert’s squirrel. For full report: Yarborough-et-al

Giant forest fires exterminate spotted owls, long-term study finds

“In a report published Aug. 1 that may help quiet a long-simmering dispute about the wisdom of using forest thinning and prescribed burns to reduce the “fuel load” and intensity of subsequent fires, a University of Wisconsin—Madison research group has documented an exodus of owls following the fierce, 99,000 acre King Fire in California in 2014.”For full article, click here: http://news.wisc.edu/giant-forest-fires-exterminate-spotted-owls-long-term-study-finds/