People. Fire. Climate.

Ana Luisa Terrazas, UA College of Education
Nov. 27, 2013

Sara Chavarria has been roaming New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, along with UA experts who specialize in tree-ring science, fire ecology and forest fire behavior, archaeology and anthropology.

Centuries before Europeans came to North America, native peoples lived within this ponderosa-pine forest in sizeable numbers. They moved from their forest homes during the Spanish period, returned after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, then left again in the 1690s. Examining how ancient populations in the Jemez responded to fire provides clues for living sustainably within forests.

Turns out, people who have lived in the Southwest for thousands of years have a lot to tell us.

Thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the UA-led interdisciplinary team of researchers is looking at forest fire history, fuels and forests, the role of human activities, and the influence of drought and dry conditions.

The project, called "Fires and Humans in Resilient Ecosystems," engages UA students, faculty and staff, and also New Mexico tribal nations, including their students, educators, community members and employees.

Chavarria, the UA College of Education's director of outreach, leads the outreach portion of the grant and has conducted workshops for Jemez and Tucson teachers, while helping them develop teaching materials about fires and forests.

"An important approach of this project's outreach is to listen to what the teachers want for their students," Chavarria says. "One outcome is the five-day, teacher-led workshop, which results in teachers designing individualized lesson plans tailored to their curriculum. A second outcome is a week-long visit to the UA from Jemez students to learn firsthand about tree-ring and fire-ecology research."

Chavarria said an added benefit for the students is that this opens their eyes to higher-education opportunities and unexamined career paths.

Jemez teachers and high school students plus Tucson teachers joined the scientists in the Jemez Mountains to help with the archaeological and tree-ring research. In an exchange of sorts, the students and teachers also spent time in Tucson’s Santa Catalina Mountains during the summer summer, studying the vestiges of the 2003 Aspen Fire.

As part of the workshops, both Jemez and Tucson teachers are immersed in the research content – tree-coring and tree-ring interpretation, for example – for 60 percent of the time. During the remaining 40 percent, teachers explore and analyze what and how they can infuse this content into their classrooms.

"It's important to create these experiences," Chavarria says. "Just as we do in Arizona, the Jemez people want to learn about changes in nature because this is their historic land. And it gives us the opportunity to present our science, research, and outreach, while creating strong partnerships."

For related coverage, read:

Contacts: Sara Chavarria at spchavar@u.arizona.edu and Ana Terrazas, communications director for the College of Education, at 520-626-3473 or anat@email.arizona.edu.

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