 A foraging Abert's squirrel. Image courtesy of Sally King via Flickr. For my master's research, I studied arctic ground squirrels on the North Slope of Alaska. From that work, I developed an affinity for squirrels, and was delighted to find a new favorite species when I moved to Flagstaff last August. The Abert's squirrel (Sciurus aberti) is endemic to portions of the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico. What does endemic mean? Endemic is a word that scientists use to describe a native species that has a restricted range. Besides Abert's squirrels having a distinctive look with their tasseled ears, they are also special to us in Flagstaff because this area is one of the few places they call home.  Abert's squirrel range. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Why do Abert's squirrels live in a place like Flagstaff? These adorable rodents are almost exclusively found in dry ponderosa pine forests. They primarily eat ponderosa and Mexican pinyon seeds, although when these are not available they will also eat buds, bark, and fungi. Eating fungus and passing it it through their droppings spreads fungal spores, which are beneficial to ponderosas; thus, the diet of the Abert's squirrel actually helps the growth of their favorite tree! While Abert's squirrels are most readily identified by their tufted ears, they also have a distinct reddish-brown stripe on their backs, a very fluffy tail, and a white underbelly. In the summer, they shed their long ear hairs and lose their winter coat. In the fall, they regrow their ear tassels and thick coat to make it through the winter.  Abert's squirrel (summer coat) with a ponderosa pine cone. Image courtesy of Sally King. When are you most likely to see an Abert's squirrel? Take a walk through the forest around Flagstaff anytime after sunrise and before sunset and you may see one of these fuzzballs sprinting across the forest floor or squeaking high up in a ponderosa pine. Baby Abert's are present in nests—which are built from ponderosa twigs—between June 10th and July 27th, so you might see youngsters emerge if your stroll is during late summer. In Flagstaff, we have our very own Abert's mascot. His name is Albert. He loves to share friendly reminders about how we can live more gently on the Earth. Have you seen Albert around town?  Albert is very eco-conscious...and a fan of Star Wars. Image courtesy of City of Flagstaff. Want to see Abert's squirrels in your back yard? Hang a bird feeder (which may soon turn into a squirrel feeder!) and wait for these acrobatic critters to come looking for snacks.
Written by Sara Wilbur
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Art and STEM are more the same than they are different. Both subjects are an attempt to understand the world around us. While art frequently requires a similar process to engineering design, STEM requires a good deal of creativity and imagination. It won’t come as a surprise that America's first STEM Community is filled with public art. Many of the art pieces in Flagstaff express scientific knowledge and are inspired by natural surroundings.
A few in particular include:
The Rainbow de Rio Mosaic Project consists of 22 tile mosaics created by Karen Knorowski. The panels colorfully celebrate the biodiversity of Rio de Flagstaff. Many of the plants and animals depicted are found in the nearby Frances Short Pond and Rio de Flag habitat. This was a collaborative project that included the help of workshop participants, local volunteers and students from the Hopi reservation and Flagstaff Unified School District.
 Monsoon clouds over the San Francisco Peaks (Wikimedia Commons) Although it’s been hot and dry in Flagstaff lately, we residents of northern Arizona know that our trails and gardens will soon be drenched with monsoon rains. While these rains are welcoming, refreshing, and exciting, they can also lead to property damage and flooding. Nevertheless, monsoon season is a phenomenon that many Flagstaffians look forward to. Last August, I drove down from Fairbanks, Alaska to make a new home in Flagstaff. I had heard about the monsoon season and was excited to experience it. However, as Flagstaff residents are well aware, the monsoon rains didn’t fall in 2019. Why did we skip a year? What is a monsoon? To answer this question, we need to understand what a monsoon is and why some areas experience monsoon seasons. A monsoon occurs when wind patterns shift to carry moist air from the tropics to drier desert locations. Hot June temperatures in Mexico and the southwestern US initiates these wind shifts, carrying moisture off the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean and bringing rains and storms to the southwest. Monsoon season is critical for keeping northern Arizona’s reservoirs full and its farms productive: 40–50% of the area’s annual precipitation arrives during monsoon season.  Heavy rains can fall in northern Arizona between mid-June and late September (Needpix) So, what happened in 2019? Perhaps not surprisingly, meteorologists throughout Arizona have differing opinions on why our monsoon season was seemingly absent in 2019. Drawing from news articles published in August 2019, all meteorologists agree that last year was unusual. It’s difficult to argue with the data: last year was the driest on record (since 1898), with only 2.08 inches of rain (Flagstaff’s average monsoon season precipitation is 8.31 inches). Perhaps, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Megan Taylor, a competing weather system from the west pushed away moist air traveling from Mexico. Some meteorologists chalk up our dry monsoon season to “luck of the draw.” Michael Crimmins, another National Weather Service meteorologist, maintained that the monsoon season did come, but it was “a little bit later and...weaker” than past seasons. Overall, it’s difficult to say what caused our dry monsoon season last year. For now, we’ll continue to look to the sky and hope for our replenishing rains to make their anticipated appearance.  Fingers crossed for monsoon rain to keep Flagstaff lush and beautiful! (Image courtesy of the author) For more information about the monsoon season in northern Arizona, check out this National Weather Service page.
Written by Sara Wilbur  One does not need to live in Flagstaff for long to know that it gets windy, especially in the springtime. But why does this area seem to feel it more than others? First, let’s examine what wind is: the mostly horizontal movement of air. This movement occurs as a mass of air moving from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. The differences in air pressure are created by varying amounts of heat on the globe. Near the equator, where sunlight reaches the Earth more directly, the heat rises and is replaced by cooler air from the north and south. Winds are also modified by the Earth’s rotation (Gaughan 2019). With that in mind, note that spring is a particularly windy season, which makes sense because it is a transitional time of year. A time where temperatures drastically fluctuate, creating a lot of air movement. As jet streams from the northwest reach Northern Arizona, the difference in pressure creates powerful winds (Jones 2020). Lastly, another reason is due to the topography of Northern Arizona which is situated near a large volcanic mountain range. The San Francisco Peaks often accelerate winds. When the horizontal flow of air encounters the mountains, it is forced up and over, deflected downward by the stable air above (Jones 2020). This deflection increases the momentum of air so locations downwind from the mountain experience the wind at much higher magnitudes. Be prepared for some windy weather and tune in to learn more about our monsoon season. Literature Cited Jones, T. (2020, February 11). Why Northern Arizona's Springtime Winds are So Strong. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://explorethecanyon.com/why-northern-arizonas-springtime-winds-are-so-strong/ Gaughan, R. (2019, March 02). How Solar Energy Affects the Earth's Atmosphere. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://sciencing.com/solar-energy-affects-earths-atmosphere-22463.html Written by Kelly Randazzo   One of the most significant scientific disciplines was created right here in Flagstaff. Dendrochronology, the study of tree rings and their connection to environmental conditions, has been observed by humans for centuries, dating back to the ancient Greeks (Sheppard 2010). It wasn’t until Andrew Ellicott Douglass, who travelled to Flagstaff in 1901 to assist with the construction of an observatory founded by astronomer Percival Lowell, that dendrochronology became a significant scientific study. Douglass had many scientific interests interconnected with astronomy, a significant area of his research included the study of the earth’s climate and effects of sunspots (Dean 2012). In order to properly analyze climate, he was searching for a scientific discipline to create a weather record database stretching back long enough to reveal significant patterns. It was here, in the dry climate of the Southwest, biologically diverse with a landscape of ponderosa pine trees, that Douglas hypothesised that tree growth is directly correlated with climate, specifically rainfall. He researched the variation of tree-ring width and observed that these variations matched among trees from a large area, known as crossdating (Dean 2012). Thus, the potential of dendrochronology was realized and led to further scientific research through dendroclimatology and archeological dating. STEM City is proud to share our abundantly rich STEM community that has influenced advances in the study of climate change and archeological research.
Written by Kelly Randazzo Literature Cited Dean, J. S. (2012). Trees, Time, and Environment. In C. E. Downum (Author), Hisat'sinom: Ancient peoples in a land without water (pp. 35-36). Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press. Sheppard, P. R. (2010). Dendroclimatology: Extracting climate from trees. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1(3), 343-352. doi:10.1002/wcc.42 The new adult Makerspace, The Coco-op (Coconino Cooperative) is opening its doors to the public on July 1st. The cooperative is a nonprofit organization founded on radical inclusivity. Membership fees are on a sliding scale, $50 for an individual and $75 for a family, however no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. While it is an adult makerspace (18+) there is a possibility for young adults to participate with parents or guardians in the future. They hope to indirectly support youth by being a central STEAM hub and creating opportunities to connect some of their talented members with younger folks as mentors. The space is a community effort, molded by the members themselves in order to explore whatever interests them. Current areas of interest are (but not limited to) woodworking, metalworking/silversmithing, glassblowing, ceramics, electronics, fabric arts, 3d printing, gardening, and media work including CAD, photoshop and video editing. The Coco-op rests on the idea that the intersection of art, engineering and technology is extremely valuable. As a cooperative, the new makerspace aims to foster connection. Cofounder, Graham Campbell, believes that combinatorial practices are the key to success. The Space is located in a warehouse at 1155 W. Kaibab. Please contact Graham Campbell at [email protected] or visit https://www.cocoop.org/coco-op for more information. The Coco-op is always looking for equipment donations! Equipment donations starting to roll in: Electronic testing equipment (oscilloscope, power supply and more), 15" wood planer, Lathe, Arduino, Soldering Iron, Painting Easel, Desktop Computers Equipment Asks - wish list: table saw, vertical band saw, Kiln & pottery wheel, anvil, sewing machine, drill press, Bridgeport mill, shop vacuum  Coco-op Site Cleanup The Flagstaff Sustainability Leaders course was developed by myself and Emily Shaffer. This is a 10-week intensive volunteer training course designed to educate Flagstaff community members about all things sustainability-related and providing action ideas to inspire volunteer projects focused on sustainability. The program is a combination of two previous volunteer training courses that was created in order to streamline programs for the sake of clarity for the public and to increase staff capacity. Once the course is finished, we will have 25 new fully-trained sustainability volunteers in Flagstaff!  One of the electives from the training focused on protecting Flagstaff’s Open Space. For this, we brought in Leila Husain, a VISTA working in the Sustainability Section’s Open Space division, to explain the steps Flagstaff is taking to preserve natural areas within city limits. For this class, we took the bus as a group to McMillan Mesa. The photo is a view of the San Francisco Peaks from a trail at McMillan Mesa. This Open Space property is in the middle of the city, near Buffalo Park, and provides walkable access to natural areas for people in the Sunnyside neighborhood, as well as all people in Flagstaff!
written by Jillian Goulet, Community Resilience VISTA  For our MLK Day of service, we joined with a large group of ArizonaServe Americorps VISTAs at Changemaker High School, Tucson, AZ. We gathered to support harm reduction by making naloxone kits. Harm reduction is a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs. It includes a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. The most dire consequence of drug use is death by overdose. Administering naloxone prevents this from happening. Naloxone is a medication that reverses opioid overdoses by blocking the opioid receptors and allowing the person to regain their breath. It is imperative that people who use drugs and everyone else who may find themselves in a position to administer naloxone has naloxone. We spent the afternoon creating over 700 kits to be distributed consisting of 3 doses of naloxone, 3 syringes, and instructions. This was a valuable opportunity to provide education to local VISTAs unfamiliar with harm reduction and empower them to put medication in the hands of community members who can now save lives. https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/americorps-members-take-on-community-service-projects-on-mlk-day?fbclid=IwAR2oMrE-BOQ2hY5eARBLfYK3DefHBxbwk63gOe_IlE_adTjrwfUqCf6si-E Gretchen and Annelisse are both on the CSI Alternatives to Managing Pain team, addressing the health disparities faced by those made vulnerable by drug use in the Tucson area. Annelisse serves with Sonoran Prevention Works. Gretchen serves with the Community Prevention Coalition of Pima County. written by Gretchen Peterson and Annelisse   Last Friday, October 25th, STEM City paired up with We Teach Maker at NAU, in the Cline Library MakerSpace, to provide professional development to Flagstaff teachers and teaching students. The evening started with a presentation on the benefits of a STEM MakerSpace and how to design and fund one. STEM City Executive Director, Kris Penca, explained to the attendees how to personalize MakerSpaces to work best for each individual classroom. After the presentation Bobby, from the CSTL and We Teach Maker, led a making activity where groups had to create a 3D model of a STEM related concept or word.
Groups had 45 minutes to build their models out of cardboard, tape, glue, pipe cleaners, and other materials available in the MakerSpace. Once time was up, the groups presented their creations and the audience guessed which STEM word their model represented.
 Thank you to everyone who came out to the event to learn and get creative!
Written by Mallory Schaefer, STEM City Project Coordinator. The segment on Elii Chapman starts at 5:45. |
