This unique academic undertaking trained 13 graduate students to unite oral history theory and methodology with ecological knowledge of the Colorado Plateau. The graduate class (MLS 599) instructed the students in learning about this culturally sensitive method of gathering information; each student then conducted a detailed oral history with a long-time resident of northern Arizona. As each generation passes, knowledge stored in the minds of those who intimately know the land disappears. This project preserves the exhaustive understanding of the land held only by the residents who have witnessed its changes. According to oral historian James Hoopes, there is no better way to capture a rich history, one that combines experience and assessment, than to record oral reminiscences.

EMA has since collected several other ecological oral histories and a total of 18 interviews have been conducted to date. These interviews, with ranchers, farmers, biologists, and Native Americans, allow a better understanding of human-culture interaction in the West. The interviews are insightful and generate rich content. A personal land ethic—articulated or implied—is a theme shared in common by the narrators.  The interviews have yielded an abundance of first-person information about ecological change in northern Arizona. The topics covered are diverse and include, among others, the following:

• Changes in wildlife populations
• Alterations in weather patterns
• The spread of invasive species
• Changes in the availability of surface and ground water
• Changes in native vegetation
• Changes in ranching, hunting, and forestry practices
• Increases in recreational pressure on national forests
  and other public lands
• The role of the Museum of Northern Arizona in fostering
  regional research
• The restoration of traditional farming areas on Hopi lands
• The history of a proposed land trade on the Tusayan District
  of the Kaibab National Forest
• Changes in the darkness of Flagstaff’s night sky
• Historic effects of air pollution in the Verde Valley
• Changes in land managers’ understanding of ecological processes.

The information collected in these oral histories can assist land managers and owners in the region to make appropriate land-use decisions, and helps researchers determine baseline conditions of the Colorado Plateau. The oral histories can be used to help regional land managers determine appropriate land uses and guide decisions regarding the reintroduction of fire and the restoration of forests and grasslands.

The interviews (in transcript and audio form) are currently available to the public in electronic form via Cline Library's Colorado Plateau Digital Archives

The transcripts have been edited by Peter Friederici (Assistant Professor of Journalism, NAU) into readable essays and a book proposal has been submitted to a publisher. Mr. Friederici plans to conduct further oral histories to complement the existing collection. Future work, based upon funding, will include completing the book manuscript and teaching the Ecological Oral Histories class again in a future semester.

The Ecological Oral Histories project was featured at a “Places of the Heart” Exhibit at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff on February 9 through March 24, 2007.