What is the Colorado Plateau Research Station?

The Colorado Plateau Research Station(CPRS) at NAU is a research station within the Center for Adaptive Western Landscapes. This research station was originally established in 1989 as a National Park Service Cooperative Park Studies Unit at Northern Arizona University. It was merged into the USGS in 1996 when the National Biological Service was incorporated into the USGS as the Biological Resources Division. In 1997, the CPRS became part of the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center in Corvallis, Oregon and in 2002 it was aligned with the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 2020, the CPRS at NAU joined NAU’s Center for Adaptive Western Landscapes (CAWL).

Major categories of research include ecoregional studies and conservation planning, especially of riparian ecosystems; including predicting effects of climate change on southwestern species; endangered and threated species recovery; invasive species, avian, and herpetofauna inventory and monitoring studies; and venomous reptile ecology and management.