Naturalist Gives Name and Recognition to Overlooked Arizona Ecoregion

In 2025, Prescott College professor Tom Fleischner continues his decades-long mission to bring recognition to the Mogollon Highlands, a biodiverse ecoregion in Arizona that was previously overlooked by researchers. When Fleischner arrived in Prescott 37 years ago, he was shocked by the region's incredible biodiversity, yet there were no books or scientific literature about it.

Determined to change that, Fleischner teamed up with other local biologists to publish a paper in 2017 officially naming and describing the Mogollon Highlands. This elevated the region's profile, and Fleischner has since been studying and speaking about its unique ecosystems, which serve as a crossroads for species from the Sierra Madre, Great Plains, and Rocky Mountains.

In 2012, Fleischner founded the Natural History Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to integrating art, science, and humanities to connect the public with the natural world. The institute now operates out of a historic building in Prescott, housing a collection of over 12,000 biological specimens that Fleischner and his team have digitized to preserve for future generations.

Despite the challenges of funding cuts and a decline in natural history research, Fleischner remains committed to his mission of protecting the knowledge, tools, and appreciation needed to study and respect the natural world, starting with the overlooked Mogollon Highlands.