RESEARCH
The Landsward Foundation conducts a wide variety of scientific research to understand and minimize threats to natural resources. These include projects focused on: protecting the integrity of ecological processes from range-shift conditions caused by climate changes, invasive non-indigenous species, or contaminants; forest and grassland health; habitat loss and fragmentation; and wildlife populations.
Species of special interest to Landsward include the golden eagle, American pronghorn, the endangered black-footed ferret, Gunnison’s prairie dog, the ferruginous hawk, and the endangered Fickeisen plains cactus. The Landsward Foundation provides guidelines for managing and monitoring these species, as well as conservation objectives and strategies. Landsward also monitors the natural and cultural resource qualities of the Coconino Plateau Region and the Little Colorado River Valley, including the geology, soils, hydrology and archaeology.
The Antelope Prairie Ecological Research Area was established through 2019 for the purpose of studying all of these natural and cultural resources.
Along with Northern Arizona University researchers, Landsward facilitates inventory studies and research in the San Juan River corridor; avian and bat surveys along the San Juan, Fossil Creek and Verde rivers; and, bird habitat research in the Verde River riparian zone at Camp Verde.
Through an agreement with NAU, two Landsward biological research field stations—Blue Chute and Black Point—are being used to study how genetic variation in plants can help them adapt to a changing environment through the Southwestern Experimental Garden Array (SEGA).
The Wild Bill Ranch Camp in the Coconino National Forest also is a Landsward ecological site.
With a climate data collection station on the Cataract Ranch, Landsward supports sophisticated climate studies being conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The weather station, part of the Climate Research Network (CRN), is the only site of its kind located in Northern Arizona.
Research partners include local, state and federal governmental agencies, agricultural and conservation organizations, universities and institutes.