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John L. Vankat
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John L. Vankat’s most recent book, which takes readers on a trip through time around Arizona’s strikingly beautiful San Francisco Peaks, culminates his 55-year career studying nature.
Vankat is an ecologist, educator and writer. His interest in how forests have changed through history began with youthful fascination with repeat photographs, in which historical images had been retaken many decades later to reveal long-term changes. Such repeat photographs captivate and educate the public, land managers, and scientists by revealing our past and present impacts on nature.
John has a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College as well as master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Davis. His doctoral research on ecological changes in Sequoia National Park began with a summer spent repeating historical photographs across the Park’s challenging 13,000-foot elevational range.
After 31 years teaching and researching ecology as a professor at Miami University, John relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona, next to the San Francisco Peaks and spent more than a decade studying forest changes in Grand Canyon National Park.
Over the last seven years, John has focused on precisely repeating numerous historical photographs on and around the San Francisco Peaks, which he views from nearly everywhere, including his living room, home office, driveway, street, and favorite trails. His book “The San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff Through the Lens of Time” caps, if not crowns, his career in forest ecology.