On Friday September 6th, the Earth Grant community came together to participate in an activity that we’ve facilitated at every annual intern-mentor orientation, an activity geared towards supporting impactful and growth-oriented experiences for both our students and our mentors. In order for us all to be able to learn and grow together over this next academic year, we need to first learn more about each other and the values and beliefs that we each carry to establish a mutual understanding of the behaviors and expectations that we will hold both ourselves and each other accountable to throughout our time together.

A University of Arizona program that has been central to the university's service to Indigenous communities will begin celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, and invites the campus and Tucson communities to join.

October may not be full of fall foliage here in the Sonoran Desert, but it is certainly a time of change and movement! With winds flowing and cooler temperatures moving in, community spaces all across Tucson are starting to hold gatherings and events outdoors again, and the Sonoran Institute is moving right along with them!

The Power Forecasting Group within the Arizona Institute for Resilience has launched a new website that shows high-resolution forecasts of weather events across the Southwest. The site helps city managers, emergency responders, and utility companies plan and prepare – and it’s right up the alley of amateur weather buffs, too.

Our own Dr. Elise Gornish, Director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, has been awarded the 2024 University of Arizona Distinguished Scholar Award. Dr. Gornish is an associate professor of restoration ecology and an associate specialist at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment within the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences.

Following an open competition, the University of Arizona has been selected to continue its work as host institution for the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. The center, part of the university's Arizona Institute for Resilience, also received $7.4 million from the U.S. Geological Survey to help fund practical solutions to high-priority climate adaptation needs.

Elise Gornish, an associate professor and extension specialist in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment under the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, has been appointed the new faculty director of the Arizona Institute for Resilience’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill.

Gregg M. Garfin, deputy director for science translation and outreach at the Arizona Institute for Resilience at the University of Arizona, says rising temperatures and heat waves are already impacting summer concerts, and in hotter regions, the shoulder seasons (spring and fall) are becoming riskier too.

Researcher Peter Breslin, of the Arizona Institute for Resilience at the University of Arizona has surveyed thousands of saguaros that spike up from Tumamoc Hill, a volcanic outcropping in Tucson, in 2022 and 2023.

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, alongside key representatives from the Navajo Department of Health and the Navajo Epidemiology Center, signed an MOU on August 5 with the University of Arizona to collaborate on data related to COVID-19 infections.