The NAU Review — The extinction risk facing freshwater animals + NAU’s days are back!

Jan. 14, 2025

The NAU Review. The official news source for Northern Arizona University.

A school of blue and orange tilapia in water

The growing extinction risk facing animals

The results of a new study, published this week and coauthored by an NAU conservation biologist, are sobering: One-quarter of freshwater animals are at risk of extinction, including fish, shrimps and insects. Learn what this means for these ecosystems, including the unique risks in the Southwest, and what governments and industry leaders can do with these data to protect critical species and ecosystems.

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A group of FCT students with blue vests, a mop bucket, brook and vacuum.

Partnership offers special ed students work opportunities

Special education high school students are learning crucial work and life skills in custodial jobs, thanks to a new partnership between Facility Services and Flagstaff Unified School District.

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A student pets a fluffy white dog at a dog days event in the fall semester.

The dog days are NOT over!

In fact, they’re just beginning! Every Tuesday, students have an opportunity to bond with four-legged fuzzballs at Dog Days, hosted by the Lumberjack CARE Center. Natalia Bonsell of the CARE Center shares how this tail-wagging good time got started, why students love it and when Lumberjacks can join the furry fun in the Spring 2025 semester.

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Fremont cottonwood trees in Dixie National Forest

The unique risk facing an iconic desert tree

Similar to how we sweat when we’re hot, Fremont cottonwoods can cool themselves through evaporation in their leaves. However, both climate change and human use is making water increasingly hard for the trees to access, putting desert forests and all they contribute to the state at risk, according to new research.

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The face of the U.S. Federal Reserve building

What role did the Fed play in the Great Recession?

Why did banks lend out less money during the Great Recession? Economists have offered up several theories over the years, but an NAU researcher and onetime Wall Streeter now claims the blame lies in part with the Federal Reserve’s 2008 decision to pay interest on banks’ excess reserves.

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