History - Seeds of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental
Research
1987 – 1989. U.S. Department of Education. $500,000 with an
additional NAU match. Mike Wagner, Peter Price, and Tom Whitham got funding
for "A Greenhouse To Support Ecological Research at N.A.U." Wanted
to name it the Merriam-Powell Greenhouse Complex for C Hart Merriam who developed
the Life Zone vegetation concept and John Wesley Powell who first explored and
surveyed the Grand Canyon. We thought this would be a good name for the
Greenhouse Complex because it reflected the earliest tradition of research in
the region and represented a tradition we could build upon. The name was
rejected by administration because building names apparently had to be for a
major donor. However, we felt that building upon the local research tradition
by these two research pioneers was very important for NAU and if the change came
again to use this name for a building or Center, we would do so.
Our success with the greenhouse grant led to the formation of a grass roots effort
of researchers from Forestry, Biology and Environmental Science who wanted to
promote collaboration and make things better for researchers at NAU. To
that end we met regularly throughout the 1990s to talk about how best to bring
this about. One of our first ideas was to develop a proposal in 1997 for
an NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, but we came at the end of the
period in which new sites were being established by NSF, so we had to abandon
the proposal.
However, our group’s considerable grant success had impressed Henry Hooper,
who was the Director of Graduate Studies and Research at NAU, and in 1999 he
made the commitment to establish the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental
Research. Since no more LTER sites were being awarded, the next best thing
was for us to build our own field station with the goal of promoting education,
research, outreach, and facilities that researchers outside NAU could utilized
to promote the potential of the Greater Grand Canyon – San Francisco Peaks
Ecosystem. To that end, in 2002, we submitted a proposal to:
2003 – 2004 - National Science Foundation – Division of Biological
Infrastructure DBI-0224851. $250,000. - Promoting Biological Research
on the Colorado Plateau with the Meriam-Powell Research Station. $250,000
with additional $250,000 NAU matching funds. PI Mike Wagner in Forestry,
Co-PI’s Tom Whitham, Tom Swetnam (Univ. of Arizona), Stan Smith (Univ.
of Nevada, Las Vegas), Jim Collins (Arizona State Univ.). Although Neil
Cobb wasn’t officially listed on the proposal he played a major role
in its development.
This success was followed with other successes in which members of the group
got funding for our EnGGEN (Environmental Genetics and Genomics) Center, and
an IGERT Graduate Training Grant for Integrative Bioscience: Genes to Environment,
NICCR (the National Institute for Climate Change Research), WREP (Water Research
and Education Program), and most recently, CPBC (Colorado Plateau Biodiversity
Center).
At the heart of all these programs has been an integrative, interdisciplinary
approach, and the Merriam-Powell Field Station we see here today is yet another
piece of the vision that first started as a grass roots effort over a decade
ago. I think it is impressive that this field station and all the other
allied programs I’ve just mentioned emerged from a dedicated group of
faculty members from diverse departments that were willing to take the plunge
and go out and get it. Although there has been important support and
matches from NAU administration, much of the money and vision has come from
the faculty. So, I would like to thank all of you for participating in
a vision that has been very successful and this facility is yet another success
of our collective efforts.
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