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Welcome to FireFlight

Have you been seeing those black clouds just South of Flagstaff? Have you heard about the horrific wildfires that ravage Southern California? Have you thought lately about the effects of these fires on the environment and those who live in it? That is the focus of our project.

We are analyzing and mapping out data collected from a span of over 10 years on bird communities, and how these environmental disasters and our mitigation efforts are affecting birds. With this data, we can analyze the effectiveness of management activities, and provide a guideline for future efforts to protect our environment and the species within it.

The Project

Wildfires have become an increasing concern due to the rise in climate change. As a result, preventative measures should be considered to prevent these natural disasters. A good indicator of ecosystem health is the local population of birds. Receiving data on bird populations, wildfires, and forest management measures will help us to decide which management methods are the most effective, and how often they should be used as to keep habitat destruction to a minimum.

People Involved

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Our Team

Alyssa Ortiz (Team Leader) - ao994@nau.edu

Andrew Ortega - alo248@nau.edu

Payton Watts - psw35@nau.edu

Tyler Chapp - tjc234@nau.edu

More About Us
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Our Sponsors

Dr. Jamie Sanderlin - jamie.l.sanderlin@usda.gov

Dr. Ana Miller-ter Kuile - ana.miller-ter-kuile@nau.edu - ana.kuile@usda.gov

Dr. Kiona Ogle - Kiona.Ogle@nau.edu

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Our Mentor

Our mentor is Scott LaRocca, a current PhD student here at NAU. He has a multitude of experience in connecting data science and nature, and thus provides very important insight to our project.

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GitHub

Our Code