Natural History Institute

Touchstone Tours:NHI conducted one Touchstone Tour, Diatremes and Anticlines, Cottonwoods and Songbirds: The geology and natural history of the San Juan River, which took place in rafts on the San Juan River of Utah, which was sold out with 18 participants. We also conducted 6 local field excursions with 70 paying participants and 7 workshops which brought in 61 paying participants. NHI was able to offer 5 of the workshops at a reduced price due to the costs being defrayed by a grant we received from the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Research:The 2022 year produced our second set of research findings as a part of our Mogollon Highlands Initiative (MHI), which was funded by our small research grant program. The objectives of the MHI are:- Develop a set of distinct scientific questions on the distribution of organisms in this region that will lead to scientific publications co-authored with researchers.- Coordinate field surveys with the research collections program of the NHI.- Contribute to a broad understanding of climate change by monitoring change along this continental-scale ecological transition zone.- Feature educational discovery field excursions, led by NHI-affiliated naturalists, in which citizens will explore the natural history of this fascinating region while contributing to research efforts documenting its biodiversity.- Foster public understanding of, appreciation for, and stewardship of this region.Our efforts to understand the biodiversity of plants in the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion began in 2018 with the then NHI Science Director, Dr. Lisa Floyd-Hanna. She started by pulling all of the data that could be found regarding plants in the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion boundary from SEINET, an internet-based data portal. The data set, while enormous, was plagued with issues that prevented a proper evaluation of diversity.In 2022, Plant Taxonomist Dr. Marc Baker agreed to try and untangle the data with the help of NHI's former Collections Manager, James Holderer. Dr. Baker volunteered his time and Mr. Holderer was paid an hourly wage. Working together Baker and Holderer developed an innovative protocol that side-stepped some of the confounding issues and promised to produce a reliable data set in 2023. Consistent with the objectives of the Mogollon Highlands Initiative, the NHI community science program strives to better understand the importance of the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion by using various community networks such as Inaturalist, GIS, EBird, and SEINET.NHI Research Affiliate, Dr. Phillip McNally, submitted a research report on the preliminary findings of the first year of a two-year research project titled, Defining the Biodiversity of Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) in the Mogollon Highlands. The preliminary report indicated very high biodiversity with 133 species verified through vouchered specimens but does not include skippers, which will be inventoried in 2023. The positive findings of defining the biodiversity of (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) in the Mogollon Highlands is proceeded by the previous year's study titled, Mogollon Highlands Snake Biogeography Project; which is in the process of being translated into a scientific paper by members of our Scientific Advisory Committee. After completion, the Scientific Advisory Committee will submit the paper to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.Dr. McNally's report compares favorably with the documented butterfly diversity of the Sky Islands Ecoregion, which hosts one of the most diverse butterfly fauna in the United States. Dr. McNally's findings further supported our assertion that the Mogollon Highlands is one of the most biologically diverse ecoregions in the U.S. Dr. McNally and associates will use their research to prepare a manuscript to be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal in 2024.We are also currently working with the Upper Verde River Wild and Scenic Coalition, a group of tribal and local governments, businesses, and organizations working to protect the Verde River. The goal of the Upper Verde River Wild and Scenic Coalition is to keep the river free-flowing to ensure a clean water supply, as well as conserve critical habitat for fish and wildlife, and maintain important community values such as scenery and recreation. Most of the work dedicated to this in 2022 involved coordination and planning with our coalition partners and the US Forest Service, with on-the-ground projects scheduled to begin in 2023.We neared the completion of data transcription for our herbarium and have begun the tedious process of georeferencing the collection. Our herbarium collection is digitized and uploaded to SEINET making it available free of charge to researchers and the public. Most of this work is done by volunteers. Our onsite herbarium offers visits at no charge to botanists, plant researchers, and the public. We also use our herbarium loans to researchers and other herbaria upon request.Other Program Services:Our tagline, "Integrated Arts, Science, and Humanities," found a firm hold in the NHI art gallery which featured four, free contemporary exhibitions: Ken Gorkzyca: Portraits of Gala; Adele Seronde: Art, Nature, & Spirit; Parched: The Art of Water in the Southwest; and Randy L Waln: The Moon Bears Witness. Each exhibition featured a free public talk and a paid field experience with the artist. Our gallery is open free to the public five days a week from 9am to 5pm.NHI undertook the collaborative publication of our second book, Wood & Stone, Substance & Spirit, by artists Rebecca Davis and Roger Assay. The 243-page coffee table book is a retrospective that covers almost 40 years of groundbreaking nature-inspired sculptural art created by the couple. We hosted a free book release event where the artists spoke to a full house about the book and the process of making it. This book event was also live-streamed and is stored on our YouTube Channel.With the hiring of Jennie Tutone as the Community Outreach and Collections Manager we are now better able to engage and incorporate volunteers which increases NHI's reach and community service capacity. We had 14 volunteers who worked a total of 368 hours at the institute doing many different crucial and tedious jobs. Our volunteers worked on things including but not limited to: data transcription for the scientific collections, art gallery preparation, exhibition installation and deinstallation, interpretive display installation, administrative tasks, and event coordination.NHI had several collaborations in 2022 with both local groups and national entities including: - Collaborating with the City of Prescott, the Community Nature Center, AZ Children's Association, UA Cooperative Extension, and others on a series of free family-centered nature play events led by environmental educators called Nature Ninos.- Stanford University, Bill Lane Center for the American West - hosted our fifth summer intern from Stanford.- Prescott National Forest (PNF) - obtained an expansion of our commercial use permit to include commonly used trails in the Prescott area. Signed an agreement that allows NHI to conduct service projects with volunteer on the PNF. Volunteer service projects may include wildlife and vegetation monitoring surveys, fence maintenance, willow planting, soil monitoring, and erosion control projects. Collaborated with the PNF Ecologist Francisco Anaya to co-teach Randy Waln's The Moon Bears Witness, and artist workshop.- Sterling College (SC) - Conducted three field and lab sessions for SC's Southwest Field Studies Initiative scheduled for the 2022-23 academic year. This work is outlined in the MOU signed in March 2021.- The City of Prescott and the Community Nature Center - conducted a district-wide Prescott Unified School District teacher in-service workshop for all the 4th-grade teachers. The workshop was funded by an NHI-secured grant from the Ingebritson Foundation.- Prescott College (PC) - Reaffirmed NHI/PC collaboration on adventure-based field programming and van use, and arranged summer hosting with the college for Stanford interns.- Highlands Center for Natural History - We provided instruction and volunteer opportunities for their Arizona Naturalist, and a Naturalist certification course.