{"id":76354,"date":"2025-11-13T11:05:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76354"},"modified":"2025-11-13T10:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T17:46:37","slug":"srp-grants-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/srp-grants-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"How NAU and SRP are protecting Arizona\u2019s natural resources\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arizona\u2019s natural resources face increased risk as the climate continues to get warmer and drier. That makes a partnership between Northern Arizona University and the Salt River Project (SRP) even more critical.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This partnership, now in its eighth year, addresses a wide range of pressing issues in the Southwest, including increased wildfire risk, managing endangered and threatened plants and animals, achieving SRP\u2019s sustainability goals and maintaining a reliable water supply.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about several research projects that are helping protect Arizona.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracking a secretive snake through its food sources<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Mexican
Mexican gartersnake. Top image: The Grand Canal in Phoenix is the oldest remaining pioneer canal on the north side of the Salt River. SRP administers and operates the Grand Canal.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Herpetologist <\/span>Erika Nowak<\/span><\/b>, an associate research professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, is leading a project that looks at declining food supplies for the northern Mexican gartersnake, a federally threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The gartersnake lives in river and riparian corridors of central and southern Arizona. As flowing water disappears due to drought and changing water tables and invasive species that outcompete the snake\u2019s native fish and frog prey base become more prolific; the snake is increasingly harder to find.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nowak, who partnered with <\/span>Faith Walker<\/span><\/b> from NAU\u2019s Species from Feces program, surveyed portions of Tonto Creek for the snake and the species that it eats. The results: no gartersnakes were detected, and lower diversity and abundance of their prey species compared to other locations in the state where the snake is found were observed.\u00a0 However, these snakes are cryptic, and can be very difficult to detect, even with multiple years of surveys conducted in an area. SRP\u2019s work includes improving the habitat in Tonto Creek where the snakes were previously detected by removing invasive species and introducing native fish and frogs back into the ecosystem as mitigation for Roosevelt Lake water storage and delivery.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regrowing the Earth\u2019s \u2018living skin\u2019 after a fire<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Summary
Summary of sod construction, production, harvest and field deployment. In the first growing season, sods kept red brome (a flammable invasive grass) at bay and retained high coverage of biocrust biota.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Protecting the watershed around the Salt River, which supplies water to more than 5 million Arizonans, includes maintaining a healthy soil surface that isn\u2019t scarred by fire or overrun by invasive grasses. To help this soil heal, an NAU team led by School of Forestry professor <\/span>Matthew Bowker<\/span><\/b> created and then installed biocrust sods in fire-affected areas. The recently completed project began two years ago<\/a>, and this summer, the team saw the results of its effort\u2014the biocrust is thwarting the growth of invasive weeds, which contributes to the growth of native plants. This has meant more ecosystem resilience; less soil erosion, leading to better water quality; and more native plants.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNew problems, such as bigger fires in the Sonoran Desert, require new solutions,\u201d Bowker said. \u201cOur work will lead to an enhanced ability to restore burned landscapes, protect infrastructure and water quality through promoting soil-guarding biocrusts.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Protecting power lines from wildfire<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Alyssa
Alyssa Sanderson piloting UAS \u201cSmokey\u201d in the field.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One major risk of wildfires is the threat of power outages, which puts critical functions like cooling services, medical center services and other operations at risk. Regents\u2019 Professor <\/span>Peter Ful\u00e9<\/span><\/b> is leading a team of graduate students and alumni that developed a technique to use drones and lidar to monitor fuel near SRP power line sites. One goal is to create a fuel hazard warning system that shows where the most severe potential fire behavior is located along power line corridors. This gives land and power infrastructure managers additional proactive information on how to protect that infrastructure before and during wildfires. This will be the fourth year of a multiyear research collaboration with SRP on this topic.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reducing water loss through cracked pipes<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The NAU-SRP Pipe Leakage Team, coordinated by mechanical engineering professor <\/span>Michael Shafer<\/span><\/b>, developed a noninvasive workflow to identify pipe leaks in the previous two phases of this project. The method has been successfully tested on some known leak pipelines in SRP\u2019s irrigation system. In Phase 3 of the project, the research team expanded its scope of work to map a major part of SRP\u2019s CIPP pipelines for leak detection and conduct on-site soil moisture testing for leak validation. The research led to a significant reduction in processing time, which meant leaks were identified and located more efficiently.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Measuring impacts of forest thinning projects<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"This
A view of the Mogollon Rim taken from Forest Road 300 in Arizona, showing remnants of the Dude Fire of 1990. Adobe Stock image.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the risk of severe wildfires grows, forest thinning has become an important prevention technique that land managers deploy in Arizona. A team led by <\/span>Temuulen<\/span><\/b> \u201c<\/span>Teki\u201d Sankey<\/span><\/b>, a professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, is examining the impacts of forest thinning in the areas affected by the 1990 Dude Fire near Payson. Researchers found that soils in thinned areas hold more moisture than those in burned and untreated, denser forest areas. The team\u2019s findings indicate that tailored restoration thinning can promote soil moisture availability and drought resiliency in forests. Improving forest health and watershed resiliency is critical to ensuring SRP can deliver on its mission to provide affordable, reliable, and sustainable water supplies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mapping the areas at greatest risk from wildfires<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Quantitative
Quantitative Wildfire Risk Assessment landscape (14 million acres) encompassing the Salt and Verde River watershed, as well as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative landscape, showing where wildfire (illustrated as modeled flame length) poses the greatest risk to Arizona.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A collaboration between NAU\u2019s Ecological Restoration Institute, SRP and Vibrant Planet worked to determine where wildfire risk is highest across more than 14 million acres throughout northern and central Arizona. This information will help SRP protect its resources and determine where strategic restoration treatments will be most effective. This project, which was led by former Ph.D. student <\/span>Tristan O\u2019Mara<\/span><\/b>, goes beyond traditional maps and numbers to include feedback from diverse stakeholders that captures perceptions of risk, community values, the importance of wildland-urban interface, wildlife habitats and water resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese insights emphasize that effective wildfire risk planning cannot be only about protecting homes or infrastructure,\u201d said <\/span>Andrew S\u00e1nchez Meador<\/span><\/b>, ERI director and professor in the School of Forestry. \u201cIt must also safeguard the ecosystems and cultural connections that make Arizona unique.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Uncovering deformations in canal linings<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

SRP provides water to about half of the Valley\u2019s residents, delivering more than 244 billion gallons of water annually. Sediment in canals and deformations in canal linings can lead to serious operations and maintenance issues and potential water leaks. <\/span>Reza Sharif Razavian<\/span><\/b>, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is leading this project, which aims to develop an inspection method using sonar imaging on an autonomous boat system to map sediment and canal lining deformations. With SRP\u2019s support, the team conducted successful field tests along one section of the Consolidated Canal and identified sediment buildup and approximate dimensions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona\u2019s natural resources face increased risk as the climate continues to get warmer and drier. That makes a partnership between Northern Arizona University and the Salt River Project (SRP) even more critical.\u00a0\u00a0 This partnership, now in its eighth year, addresses a wide range of pressing issues in the Southwest, including increased wildfire risk, managing endangered…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":76362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}