Homecoming at NAU

Make your plans for lot of fun in Flagstaff. Next weekend, actually Thursday, October 23, 2008 through Sunday, October 26, 2008, is Northern Arizona University's 84th Homecoming. Check out all the activities now because you'll need to make reservations.

Get tickets at the Central Ticket Office for Saturday's NAU Homecoming Game vs. Weber State at the Skydome.

Theme Town by Thomas Wayne Paradis

Here's a very interesting thing to do around Flagstaff. It all revolves around Theme Town: A Geography of Landscape and community in Flagstaff, Arizona, written by Dr. Thomas Wayne Paradis. His book was written as a self-guided walking tour for NAU students in his world geography classes. But, it's an excellent resource for learning about Flagstaff.

You'll need to:

1. Purchase (or borrow from the library) a copy of Theme Town.
2. Read the book and make note of things you want to pay special attention to has you do the walking.
3. Go to the book's website, Theme Town and check out the supplemental materials.
4. Take Dr. Paradis' tour on foot. You may want to divide it into sections as noted in the book or walk the entire tour and then return to different sections.

You'll never view Flagstaff the same way again, after you read Theme Town and take the tour. It's a great trip.

Athletics at NAU

If you are interested in attending athletic events at Northern Arizona University (NAU) you'll like the NAU Lumberjacks website. One really handy resource is the Event Calendar. You can see each days' events by a simple mouse-over of the date. Easy access to the times for all activities, including volleyball, tennis, soccer, not just the big sports like football and basketball.

In addition you can see current news about NAU sports, like recaps of recent games or profiles of players. This is such a good resource since we no longer have Channel 2 News to keep us up-to-date on what's happening around town in Flagstaff and around campus.

Note: You can also see the TV Schedules for events that can be viewed on cable.

Hole in the Rock Expedition at Cline Library

The 2008 Community Lecture Series begins at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night, September 17, at Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. The first lecture, by Stewart Aitchison, is The Last Wagon Train: The Hole-in-the Rock Expedition. Aitchison is a zoologist, geologist and naturalist.

Get more details at Grand Canyon Association Calendar.

We're really looking forward to this season of lectures.

History of Northern Arizona University

"This book ought to be read by anyone who loves Flagstaff and by everyone interested in higher education in Arizona."--Bruce Babbitt, Former Governor of Arizona, on the back cover of Mountain Campus: The Story of Northern Arizona University by Platt Cline.

You could very appropriately add to that statement: "This book should be suggested reading for all NAU students and parents." I would use the phrase required reading, but that somehow implies that this book might be something to look forward to with less than enthusiasm. Reading this book is anything but a chore.

Platt Cline loved NAU, but he also put on his newspaper editor's hat when he wrote it. The result is an extremely readable history of both the university which started as a normal school in 1899, and the town that supported it. This paragraph from the book's introduction gives you sense of connection between the two:

"The reader will early find that the school owed its conception and birth directly to the small town of Flagstaff, then only a few more than a dozen years from its founding, and I hope he shares my delight in how this extraordinary achievement was brought about by the community's leaders as they maneuvered astutely, patiently, with good will--and also a sense of humor--to attain their goal. It could only have happened in Flagstaff! While there could have been a Flagstaff without the school, there could never have been the school without Flagstaff."

Please consider picking up a used copy (it's out of print) of this excellent history. You'll never feel the same about Flagstaff and its Mountain Campus.

Class Time

Flagstaff K-12 students are settled into their new classes. And now Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Coconino Community College (CCC) start their Fall 2009 classes tomorrow.

It's an exciting time for students and the community alike. There's a new, yet familiar, energy in the air. College students do that to a town. We're glad to have them back.

When I had to search last week to find out when college classes actually start this semester, I realized how much we are all going to miss our live TV news reporting. In times past, I would have already known all the news of Fall 2008 at NAU and CCC, because I would have seen it on Channel 2 news. It's not going to be easy to keep up with what's happening on campus. And what about sports? How will we know what's coming up and how the teams are doing. We'll have to get that figured out.

But, for now, welcome "home" to all our college students.

Ecological Restoration Institute at NAU

Just another short virtual trip over to NAU for a visit to the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI). The ERI is on a mission that is directly affecting Flagstaff and the surrounding forest. You'll find lots of information about the contribution these dedicated people are making to the restoration and protection of our forests and our people.

This is how the ERI introduces itself, "The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is nationally recognized for mobilizing the unique assets of a University to help solve the problem of unnaturally severe wildfire and degraded forest health. Focusing principally on landscapes where unprecedented wildfires threaten ecological and community sustainability, the ERI works to help cooperative efforts led by land management agencies and communities by providing comprehensive focused studies and monitoring and evaluation research and technical support.

Realizing that wildland and community health problems are interdisciplinary by nature, we seek to engage the university community across disciplinary boundaries—not just foresters, ecologists, and environmental scientists, but also engineers, economists, social scientists, educators, and beyond. In addition to the standard university functions of knowledge discovery, synthesis, and transfer, the ERI stresses a learning-by-doing approach—one that helps faculty, staff, and students gain real life experience working with land management agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers at the local to national level. Our goal is not just discovery of knowledge, but meaningful work that makes a difference for western forests.

The ERI was formally established by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1997 and by federal legislation in 2004. The ERI is funded by a combination of programmatic state and federal funding and through competitive grants programs."

You'll want to follow all the links on this site, to really understand how important their mission is. Don't miss this article, Thinning the fear from The Arizona Republic, June 30, 2008, if you want to find out about the progress and effects of forest land thinning in and around Flagstaff.

Flagstaff Festival of Science 2008

Mark your calendars for Zoom Into Science! Be sure to start now to make plans to attend the many events sheduled during the Flagstaff Festival of Science, September 26 - October 5, 2008.
Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and First Light, will be the Shoemaker Keynote speaker on Friday, September 26. Then for ten days, if your time is limited, you'll have to make some tough decisions about what to see. Among your choices are the NAU Campus Observatory, the Interferometer Tour at Anderson Mesa, several lectures at Lowell Observatory, the Rim Walk at Meteor Crater, and Dragonflies of Northern Arizona at MNA.

Get all the details at Flagstaff Festival of Science. All activities are free, but don't wait to make plans because you need reservations for some events.

Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau

Come October, we will be able to hold in our hands the landscapes of hundreds of millions of years of geologic history. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, by Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney will be published. You can pre-order it at Amazon.com. I already did.

If you're a fan of Ron Blakey at NAU and the amazing maps he makes available to us on the Internet or of Wayne Ranney and his writing about the geologic history of the Sedona, Verde Valley and the Grand Canyon, this new book is a long awaited collaboration.

You can read about Ancient Lanscapes of the Colorado Plateau at The University of Arizona Press or at the Grand Canyon Association.

And there's more, the two authors will be giving a lecture, Tracing the Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, as part of the Canyon Country Community Lecture Series. See the details on the website, about the lecture in Prescott on Sunday, November 16, 2008 and in Flagstaff on Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

This is really something to look forward to--one more contribution to our understanding of the Colorado Plateau by these two brilliant geologists.

USArray Seismic Stations and NAU

Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and University of Arizona earth scientists will be able to analyze and interpret data from eight USArray stations. The news release headline, dated July 28, 2008, read: "Arizona Geological Survey Receives FEMA Grant to Improve Earthquake Monitoring & Risk Assessment in Arizona."

From the news release, "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded $493,678 as a Pre-Disaster Mitigation Competitive Grant to the consortium headed by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) to improve earthquake monitoring and revisit seismic hazard assessment in Arizona. AZGS and the three universities are providing $172,000 in matching funds." This is the first time that FEMA has made funds available in this way.

This means that Arizona will be able to keep eight of the 58 stations which have been monitoring seismic activity in Arizona for almost two years and will be moving to another part of the United States in October 2008.

For more information see the Arizona Geological Survey webpage, Improving Earthquake Monitoring & Risk Assessment in Arizona.

So, once again NAU is involved in a project very important to Arizona and the local community.

Environmental History of the Colorado Plateau

What a fantastic resource for learning about this beautiful area. NAU website, Colorado Plateau-Land Use History of North America (CP-LUHNA) is described on its front page, "This website provides an introduction to the environmental history of the Colorado Plateau. It summarizes a vast body of research from multiple disciplines in an easily accessible format."

I can't begin to describe the vast amount of information available here. So, here are the broad categories covered:

• People
• Biota
• Places
• Tools
• Change
• Trends
• Research

The bibliographic database is temporarily unavailable as of the time of this post. But, I believe this is an unparalleled introduction to the environmental history of the Colorado Plateau. Congratulations to this group for an amazing job. This is part of the Land Use History of North America project by the USGS.

The Cardinals Are Here

Update: Please see current updated schedule at Training Camp 'o8.

Flagstaff welcomes the Arizona Cardinals. Training camp starts Friday. Twenty-nine practices are open to the public. Parking and admission is free at the practice fields next the NAU Skydome.

The schedule and all the details are available at FlagstaffWebCam.com. Three things to remember: Check the weather. Take your umbrella for a dash to the car. Wear you sunscreen and sunglasses.

A little Monsoon possibility won't put a damper on this. Sounds like fun.

NAU Yearbooks Online

If you attended Northern Arizona University (NAU) and want to take a walk down Memory Lane or you just want to know a little more about NAU history, Cline Library and the Colorado Digital Archives gives you access to many yearbooks from 1915 to 1978. You can view them online at Northern Arizona University Yearbooks.

While you're browsing, don't overlook the advertisements. On page 6 of the 1915 volume of The Pine, the following ad appears: "For the Bachelor Girl or the School Girl--There's nothing like the Electric Iron--It weighs but 3 pounds--It costs but $2.50. HOTPOINT Traveller's Iron for pressing the Dainty Summer Waists, so dear to the heart of Girlhood. Use it right in your room." by FLAGSTAFF ELECTRIC LIGHT CO. "Do It Electrically"

Thank you NAU and Cline Library for giving us access to these priceless historical resources.

Quilt Camp in the Pines 2008

This week, Flagstaff's NAU is the place to be if you're a quilter in Northern Arizona. Starting Sunday, July 13 and continuing through Saturday the 19th, Quilt Camp in the Pines draws not only local artisans, but quilters from all over the country. If you're local, it's not too late to attend a session at the last minute, since each quilting class is priced individually and there are still several classes that have open seats.

All the information and the class schedule is on the Internet at QuiltCamp.com.

Colorado Plateau at NAU Cline Library

You can take a fascinating virtual trip back through the history of the Colorado Plateau by visiting Colorado Plateau Digital Archives at Northern Arizona University's Cline Library. (Soon we'll take a little road trip down to Cline Library, NAU, Flagstaff. I'll post some pics and the location of the library.)

One of my favorite exhibits is Beyond the Rainbow: The Photographs of James J. Hanks which, in addition to almost 450 digitally scanned negatives from 1027 and 1928, gives access to repeat photography that allows us to see some of Hanks' photographs side-by-side with 2005 pictures of the same sites.

This exhibit is just one part of an ongoing work to make the Colorado Plateau Collections, held by Cline Library, more accessible to students, researchers and the general public. Whether you visit these archives online or at the Library, it is a trip you don't want to miss.