Ryan Heinsius
News Director & Managing EditorRyan Heinsius joined the KNAU newsroom as executive producer in 2013 and was named news director and managing editor in 2024. As a reporter, he has covered a broad range of stories from local, state and tribal politics to education, economy, energy and public lands issues, and frequently interviews internationally known and regional musicians. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Public Media Journalists Association Award winner, and a frequent contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and national newscast.
Before making the leap to public radio, Ryan spent more than a decade in print media as the editor of an alternative weekly paper. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Arizona University in political science and journalism and has also returned to teach at his alma mater.
Ryan is a Flagstaff-based musician and has performed and recorded with many bands in the Southwest. He spends as much time as possible with his family hiking, running and cycling the amazing terrain of northern Arizona and the Southwest.
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On Tuesday federal officials hosted a public meeting in Flagstaff over a proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon that would protect more than a million acres of public land.
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As much of the western U.S. endures a major heat wave, officials at Grand Canyon National Park are urging visitors to prepare for extreme temperatures this weekend.
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Ten years after 19 wildland firefighters died in Arizona, the profession has changed practices to improve safety and care for crews' mental health.
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Friday marks the 10th anniversary of one of the grimmest days in wildland firefighting history—when 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire. Only one crew member survived. The news was unbearable; the magnitude of it nearly impossible to absorb. Those closest to the fallen firefighters will reckon with it for the rest of their lives. For some, the last decade has been about confronting deep PTSD and focusing on mental health.
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Indigenous leaders are praising a decision by the U-S Supreme Court upholding a law that keeps adopted Native children among their tribes. It’s seen as a major case in defending tribal autonomy.
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Federal wildlife officials have released a female Mexican gray wolf back into the wild after she was captured in northern New Mexico in January. The endangered animal had ventured hundreds of miles from the species’ designated area.
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Smoke from a large, prescribed burn about 10 miles southwest of Flagstaff is expected to taper off into the weekend. It’s one of several forest health projects fire managers have begun in recent weeks amid unusually wet spring conditions.
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Residents of Flagstaff and other northern Arizona communities have no doubt noticed all the smoke in the air in recent weeks. It’s come from a combination of several prescribed burns and lightning-caused wildfires that forest officials have opted to manage for ecological benefit following a very snowy winter and amid an unusually wet spring.
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Throughout northern Arizona fire managers are taking advantage of unusually wet spring conditions by using fire to enhance forest health. They’re employing some of these methods on the Volunteer Fire west of Flagstaff on the Coconino National Forest.
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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a major contract in the long-term cleanup of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. The decades-long process aims to address public health risks and environmental threats.