Achievements
Publications and achievements submitted by our faculty, staff, and students.
Staff Allyson Carroll Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Allyson Carroll (research associate) received a grant from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to support research that will use redwood tree rings to date earthquakes on the northern San Andreas Fault. Tree ring signals, such as changes in growth and dates of reiterated trunks, will be used to constrain the year of the large magnitude event that occurred prior to the 1906 earthquake. Project findings will improve earthquake recurrence models for this region. Collaborators include Dr. Stephen Sillett and Marie Antoine at Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as Dr. Belle Philibosian at USGS and Dr. Ozgur Kozaci.
Faculty Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was invited to give a presentation titled "Grapple Yarding Productivity Studies." His presentation was part of a panel on Grapple Yarding at the Western Region Council on Forest Engineering (WR.COFE) annual meeting on January 12th, 2023, in Lebanon, Oregon.
Faculty Susan Edinger Marshall Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Dr. Susan Edinger Marshall received a planning grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to develop the California Rangeland Education (CRED) program in collaboration with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and Audubon California. The initiative aims to assist individuals in completing educational requirements to sit for the California Certified Rangeland Manager (CRM) exam, analogous to the Registered Professional Foresters (RPF) exam. The program will create a curated study guide for prospective candidates, and also inventory and suggest integrative range courses being offered in California, perhaps by collaborating with other campuses and ranches.
Faculty Alan Tepley Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Alan Tepley was the lead author on a paper that evaluates trends in wildfire evacuations across Canada's forested regions over the last four decades. The study summarizes spatial variation in the characteristics of the fires that led to evacuations (e.g., the size, seasonality, and ignition sources) and the communities exposed (e.g., population, access to the road network, and trends in evacuations on First Nations reserves vs. non-reserves). Understanding the key risk factors and how they vary spatially across Canada and temporally over the fire season will aid in planning for future fire seasons.
Faculty Hunter Harrill, Will Goldenberg Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management) was invited to deliver a presentation titled, "Creating Immersive Field Trips and Assignments During COVID" for a panel session on Forest Operations Education at the COFE-FORMEC-IUFRO Division 3 International Conference of Forest Engineering, in Corvallis, Oregon, October 4-7th, 2022. His presentation featured the high quality virtual field trips that were filmed and produced by Humboldt alumni Will Goldenberg, that are now helping professors from other universities around the world, to educate their students. Dr. Harrill also served as a moderator for a panel session on Forest Operations Planning Issues and Opportunities.
Student Karolyn Fagundes, Hunter Harrill, Susan Marshall, Andrew Stubblefield, Han-Sup Han Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Karolyn Fagundes (Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management) was invited to deliver a presentation highlighting her Master's thesis research, titled, "Assessing Soil Disturbance from a Tethered Feller Buncher on Steep Slopes in Northern California." The presentation was part of a panel session on Environmental Impacts at the COFE-FORMEC-IUFRO Division 3 International Conference of Forest Engineering, in Corvallis, Oregon, October 4-7th, 2022.
Faculty Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Dr. Hunter Harrill received a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Forest Service to conduct a study that will determine the size, scale, and capabilities of the logging industry in California. The main objective of the project is to survey the industry to quantify the number of crews that exist and their characteristics (e.g. capacity, employment, equipment, capabilities), and improve our understanding of their challenges, opinions, business outlook, and vision for the future. Findings will inform land managers about the potential for types of forest operations and available capacity in their respective area.
Faculty Jeffrey Kane Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management In an effort to address California's daunting wildfire challenges, Dr. Jeffrey Kane and the Humboldt Fire Resilience Institute recently acquired a $500,000 Cal Fire Workforce Development Grant. Through these funds, the institute, in partnership with local agencies and organizations, will work to develop and better integrate education, training, experience, and outreach opportunities for fire students, professionals, and community members within northwestern California. The major aim of this work is to enhance the qualified fire and fuels management workforce to help reach the ambitious but necessary fuel reduction targets for California in the coming years.
Student Robert Muma, Dr. Kevin Boston, Dr. Christa Dagley, Dr. J-Pascal Berrill + collaborators Lynn Webb & Harold Zald Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management Muma, R.; Webb, L.W.; Zald, H.S.J.; Boston, K.; Dagley, C.M.; Berrill, J-P. 2022. Dynamics of stump sprout regeneration after transformation to multiaged management in coast redwood forests. Forest Ecology and Management 120236.
Faculty Susan Edinger Marshall Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Dr. Susan Edinger Marshall has been awarded the 2022 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award by the Range Science Education Council and the Society for Range Management.
Faculty Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was recently appointed by the New Zealand Crown Agency of Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) as the first advisor of North American Forestry.
Student Zachary Gigone, Andrew Stubblefield, Joseph Wagenbrenner (USFS), Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Zachary Gigone (Forestry) gave a presentation entitled "Erosion rates from forest roads affected by the August Complex fire in Northern California," at the Western Region Council on Forest Engineering (WR.COFE) meeting in Lebanon, Oregon on January 13th, 2022. Zach is supervised by Dr. Andrew Stubblefield (Forestry), and co-supervised by Joeseph Wagenbrenner (USFS), and Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry), who also served on the WR.COFE Conference Organizing Committee.
Faculty Hunter Harrill & Karolyn Fagundes Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Hunter Harrill (Forestry) delivered a one day workshop titled "Understanding Tethered Operations" on January 7th to over 60 local forestry professionals from various agencies. The workshop was hosted by Green Diamond Resource Company and HSU Master's Student Karolyn Fagundes also presented preliminary results from her study of soil disturbance caused by tethered machines on their property.
Faculty Dr. Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was part of an international team of authors who recently published and article "Advances in Cable Yarding: A Review of Recent Developments in Skyline Carriage Technology," in the Journal of Current Forestry Reports.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-021-00150-x
Faculty Jeff Kane Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Jeff Kane (Forestry and Wildland Resources) received the "Most Outstanding Associate Editor" award for his work with the international journal "Fire Ecology". The award was presented during the 9th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress held last week.
Jeff has served as an Associate Editor for the journal "Fire Ecology" since 2015.
Student Madeleine Lopez, Sean Lindley, Heather Rickard, and Kelsey Fletterick Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Graduate students Madeleine Lopez, Sean Lindley, and Heather Rickard (Forestry and Wildland Resources) and undergraduate student Kelsey Fletterick (Environmental Science and Management) all presented research at the 9th International Fire Ecology and Management Congress that was held virtually Nov. 30th-Dec. 3rd, 2021.
David Greene and Jeff Kane (Forestry and Wildland Resources) organized and presented their research as part of a special session entitled "Frontiers of post-fire regeneration in a rapidly changing landscape".
Faculty Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Dr. Hunter Harrill (Forestry) was invited to the USFS Rogue River-Siskiyou Forest Leadership Team meeting, on November 23rd to give a guest presentation entitled "An Introduction to Tethered Harvesting Systems."
Student Zachary Erickson, Kevin Boston, Pascal Berrill, Mike Dockry (UMN) Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Forestry MS student Zack Erickson gave an oral presentation at the prestigeous National Conference for the Society of American Foresters, entitled "Integrating Ways of Knowing: Utilizing Tribal Management Perspective to Guide Modern Silvicultural Methods in Cooperative Forest Management." His thesis committee co-authored the talk: HSU faculty Prof. Pascal Berrill, Dr. Kevin Boston, and UMN professor of Tribal and Indigenous Natural Resource Management Dr. Michael Dockry.
Faculty Dr. Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Dr. Hunter Harrill was the moderator of a panel session entitled "What We Will Be Building With In The Future," at the 112th Annual Pacific Logging Congress, held in Indian Wells, CA from November 8-10th, 2021.
Faculty Pascal Berrill, Christa Dagley Forestry, Fire, & Rangeland Management
Dr. J-Pascal Berrill and Dr. Christa Dagley have received a $227,000 grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE to support Phase I of a collaborative “pyrosilviculture” research project between HSU, UC Berkeley, and UC Cooperative Extension. The prescribed burning fuels reduction project on Jackson Demonstration State Forest will demonstrate and compare various approaches designed to help timberland owners be proactive in reducing potential impact (severity) of future wildfires. HSU undergraduate and graduate students working on this large-scale wildfire risk mitigation project will collaborate with forestry and fire management practitioners, researchers,