Facilities & Fieldwork Locations
Cal Poly Humboldt is located in the heart of the coastal redwood forest. The surrounding environment is perfect for hands-on work in the field. These outdoor classrooms, along with excellent on-campus resources, prepare you for a career outdoors.
Our Department's Facilities
Forest and Range Herbarium
The herbarium includes numerous forest and wildland plants, providing an opportunity for hands-on plant identification. It houses a comprehensive collection of vegetative and reproductive samples of woody tree shrub species from across North America and is used extensively in the Dendrology class for hands-on learning. This collection also includes wood specimens from numerous important timber species across the U.S that are used to teach basic wood identification skills.
Forestry and Range Experimental Greenhouse
Classes use the greenhouse for plant response experiments testing the effects of soil fertility, water stress, density, and light. The greenhouse also contains a watershed simulator and groundwater simulator used to study rainfall, runoff, erosion, and groundwater processes by Watershed classes. Students in Silvics, Soil Fertility, and Forest Ecology classes—as well as undergraduate researchers—design and execute their own experiments, such as quantifying seedling physiological responses to fog, drought, shade, light, or heat and how these responses vary among species.
Jacoby Creek Forest
This 800-acre property was acquired in 2019. Only 15 minutes from the university, it is a major destination for field trips, capstone projects, and student research. With Forestry & Wildland Resources taking the lead in its management, it will be a place where students learn the fundamentals of measurement, road maintenance, harvesting, and forest administration.
L.W. Schatz Tree Farm
Donated in 1987 by Dr. L.W. Schatz, the 385-acre L.W. Schatz Demonstration Tree Farm is located 45 minutes east of campus. It serves as a field experiment station for researchers, an outdoor classroom for educators, and a demonstration area for forestry extension professionals. Ongoing research at this demonstration forest includes studies of forest responses to variable density retention treatments, long-term monitoring of Sonoma tree vole populations, and seasonal physiology of bigleaf maples.
L.W. Schatz Tree Farm website »
Wildland Fire Laboratory
The Wildland Fire Laboratory is among the most well-equipped fire research facilities of any university in the United States. Graduate and undergraduate students and visiting scientists have access to a burning facility, a thermal infrared imaging camera, drying ovens, fuel storage capacity, and other equipment to support field and lab research.
Wildland Fire Laboratory website »Other Fieldwork Locations
Arcata Community Forest
The Arcata Community Forest, the edge of which is just one block away from the Forestry Building, is an actively managed 790-acre redwood forest with pockets of mature second-growth. The forest is a nationally recognized model of excellent forestry and land stewardship and provides an easily accessible outdoor classroom used for field trips in nearly all forestry courses.
Freshwater Forest
Freshwater Forest is a 300-acre second-growth redwood forest approximately 15 minutes from the Humboldt campus. In addition to being a site for field trips, this is also where our Logging Sports team practices. Humboldt has received long-term use of this property through the generosity of the Humboldt Redwood Company.
Industrial and Private Forestlands
Humboldt County is the center of California's forest industry, producing more of California's annual timber harvest than any other county. The department has excellent working relationships with industrial (Barnum Timber Company, Green Diamond, Humboldt Redwood Company, and Sierra Pacific) and private timberland owners and is granted routine access to the hundreds of thousands of private timber lands for class use and examples. This makes the study of Forestry & Wildland Resources at Humboldt field-oriented and not just a classroom experience.
Private and Public Rangelands
Private ranches and state and federal lands, just minutes from campus, provide opportunities for hands-on experience with varied working landscapes and wildlife habitats. Our coastal grasslands and pastures produce grass-fed and organic food and fiber. According to the latest county agricultural reports, livestock and livestock products account for 58 percent of Humboldt County’s gross agricultural receipts. Regularly scheduled field trips extend to more arid regions of California and Oregon as well.
Redwood National and State Parks
A management cooperative between the state and federal park systems, this network of parks protects old growth coast redwoods, some of the world's largest and tallest trees. If you would like to learn more, check out Redwood National Park and the California State Parks.
USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Redwood Sciences Laboratory
This laboratory is part of the USDA Forest Service's network of regional research stations. Home to a wide range of scientists and support staff, the Redwood Sciences Laboratory performs watershed, wildlife, and fisheries research with a focus on the coastal rainforest region from California to Alaska. Laboratory scientists give guest lectures and provide field trips to the Caspar Creek Experimental Watershed within California’s Jackson Demonstration State Forest.
USDA Forest Service Six Rivers National Forest
Situated on the North Coast of California, Cal Poly Humboldt is near four different national forests. Six Rivers National Forest, with the supervisor's office located in Eureka, is the closest. Laboratory periods make frequent field trips to study forest management for multiple uses: outdoor recreation, rangeland, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fisheries needs.
