Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Armeda Reitzel was selected as one of twenty-eight scholars in the United States to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar/Institute on “Understanding Middle Eastern Millennials through Literature, Culture, and Media.” The seminar will take place at the University of Arizona from August 4 through August 10, 2019.
Rosemary Sherriff and Lucy Kerhoulas received an NSF Award for ~$400,000 for three years to assess differential response of conifers to drought across geographic gradients. The project uses the recent, severe California drought as a test case to yield important insights on the effects of multi-year drought stress, competition and habitat factors. This information is needed to model tree responses to climate change and as input for forest management in the face of future wildfire. The project involves field sampling and analysis of tree-ring growth and carbon isotope ratios. The team will involve undergraduate and graduate students and multiple collaborators.
Recieved an NSF grant to study conifer drought responses in the Klamath Ecoregion ($399,987).
Featured scientists at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The exhibit, "Giants of Land and Sea, Redwood Ascent," will be on display in one of the main galleries for five years.
Five Rangeland Resource Science students have been awarded the Rustici Livestock and Rangeland Scholarship, administered through the California Farm Bureau Federation. These scholarships are worth $5,000 and are renewable each year.
Published paper in Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases: Isolation and Characterization of a Rickettsia from the Ovary of a Western Black-legged Tick, Ixodes pacificus
HSU MS student Claire Nasr won an Honorable Mention in the National Science Foundation's prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program competition
Co-edited book Population Ecology and Conservation of Charadrius Plovers. Studies in Avian Biology No. 52
Awarded Sequoia Park Zoo Conservation Grant for project "Monitoring Humboldt's Flying Squirrels with Novel Techniques".
Graduate student Trinity Smith won best student poster at the North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR) conference for her poster entitled "Patterns of western red bat occupancy across a disturbed landscape in California's Central Valley"
Presented poster at the annual meeting of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society entitled "The effects of human disturbance on intraguild interactions of mammalian mesopredators in the Mojave Desert of California"
Published a paper in Evansia: Epiphyte diversity, abundance, and distribution in an old Sitka spruce crown.
Received scholarship from the California Native Plant Society for his research on conifer encroachment in northern California oak woodlands ($1,500).
HSU Rangeland Resource students Louise Martin, Michael Mees, Mary Scanlan, Kegan Richards, and Ivy Sebring-Patton have each been awarded a $5,000 Rustici Livestock and Rangeland Scholarship. This scholarship is offered through the California Farm Bureau Federation and is renewable annually. Congratulations!
Humboldt State University TRiO Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, and GEAR UP proudly hosted the 2019 Winter Academy this past February. Winter Academy brings high school students to HSU’s campus to take part in “A Day in the Life of a College Student” and to picture the possibilities of life after high school. The day was filled with TRiO and GEAR UP students who took the time to spend their President’s day off taking classes with enrolled HSU students in disciplines they expressed interest in, participating in workshops, study sessions, and tours of campus facilities. This massively collaborative effort among HSU early outreach programs has been incredibly successful and continues to grow in popularity and attendance each February.
HSU TRiO alum students played a critical role in guiding students to and from classes ensuring timely arrival as well as acting as docents to assist them with the transition between classes from all corners of the campus. HSU staff, faculty and professors were and continue to be committed to receiving TRiO and GEAR UP students into their classrooms, labs, and facilities and without this support, the Winter Academy would not be as successful as it is. Students sat in over 20 different lectures, demonstrations, and activities from all three colleges on campus, and toured the green house, the special collections room, and athletic facilities. 50 students participated in the academy this year and that number is expected to grow next year. To learn more about TRiO Upward Bound, TRiO Talent Search, and GEAR UP, please visit our websites:
https://trioupwardbound.humboldt.edu/
Matthew Derrick, chair of Geography, was elected as president of the California Geographical Society at the organization's annual meeting May 3-5.
Summer won third place in the Digital Map Competition at the California Geographic Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with her map The Impact of the Thomas Fire.
Brian won second place in the Digital Map Competition at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA for his map An Overview of Watersheds of California.
Leo won first place in the Digital Map Competition at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA for his map Historical Physical & Architectural Features of Eureka, CA.
Riley won second place in the Paper Map Competition at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA for his map The San Gabriel Mountains.
Gil won first place in the Print Cartography competition at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with his map The Southern California Coast.
Danielle won first place in the McKnight Student Paper Contest for best undergraduate geography paper at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with her work Cartography and Resistance: Counter-mapping in Palestine.
Kevin won the Geosystems award for best paper in physical geography at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with his research "Determining Factors That Contributed to the Carr Fire."
James Floss, in AY 18-19 studied undocumented immigrant experiences locally, within the state of California, and internationally. The stories, originally published on KHSU are now available through NPR One. The guests were from Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Columbia, El Salvador and the United States. Some were undocumented, some were legal residents, one was a newly minted citizen and one was deported two days after being recorded.
Received USDA Multicultural Scholars Award to provide outdoor leadership training and scholarships to Forestry Students ($162,000)
Received Agricultural Research Institute Grant to study Phytophthora ($60,518).
Presented poster at HSU's INRSEP/CNRS Scientific Research Symposium: Physiology, growth, and immediate response to thinning in a second-growth redwood forest.
Selected to represent HSU at the CSU Research Competition with his investigation of conifer encroachment in northern California oak woodlands
Principal Investigators for Save the Redwoods League's Redwoods Rising Apprenticeship Program ($174,430).
Received an RSCA Award to purchase a cavitation chamber for measuring tree drought resistance
HSU participated for the first time in the Collegiate Soil Contest hosted by CalPoly SLO. Overall the HSU Team placed 19th out of 26 teams nationwide, but ranked #1 among teams from the 11 western states; higher than Land Grant Institutions such as Colorado State, Utah State, and University of Wyoming.
Became a member of the Northwest Scientific Association's Board of Directors
Published paper in Nature Climate Change "Winners and losers in response to extreme drought"
ESM graduate student Thomas Starkey-Owens presented a poster: "Benthic macroinvertebrate drift and juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) diet response to pulse flows on the Trinity River below Lewiston Dam" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa, CA on April 25th.
ESM undergraduate Katherine Stonecypher presented a poster: "Assessing Salmonid Migration Risk Using the Riffle Crest Thalweg" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa, CA on April 25th.
Environmental Science & Management undergraduates Melissa Collin and Sean Fleming presented, "Modeling Flows in Northwest California Watersheds with VELMA - 2.0" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa on April 26th.
HSU was recognized as one of 139 universities/colleges worldwide by Exercise is Medicine® for its efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus. A leadership team of Kinesiology faculty and students helped earn the bronze-level designation by launching a daily walk/run 5K program on campus for faculty, staff, and students over a 10-week period this semester. Goals included promoting physical activity as a vital sign of health and making movement a part of the daily campus culture. More than 40 students, staff, and faculty participated. All gold, silver and bronze universities/colleges will be recognized on May 29 at the 2019 Exercise is Medicine World Congress.
Armeda Reitzel has been selected to serve as the Midwestern Culture subject area chair of the Midwest Popular Culture Association.
Tyler Ladinsky (MS '12), Harvey Kelsey and Melanie Michalak were awarded a one year grant through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program to conduct a paleoseismic investigation on the Little Salmon Fault in Humboldt County. Their proposal, "In Southern Cascadia, Do Upper-Plate Faults Rupture in Concert with Subduction Zone Earthquakes: A Paleoseismic Investigation of the Little Salmon Fault Zone" is a collaborative effort between HSU faculty and students, the California Geological Survey, and United States Geological Survey to evaluate the chronology and style of earthquakes on the Little Salmon Fault in context of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
HSU Collegiate Soil Judgers Place #1 in 11 western states (overall 19th out of 26).
HSU's first National Collegiate Soil Contest team traveled to San Luis Obispo last week for four days of practice pits, followed by two days of individual and team competition among 26 universities in attendance. HSU team members included Nic Anderson (RRS), Daniel Guzman (ESM), Tiffany Perez (RRS), Miles Ritch (RRS), Monica Piña (RRS), and Alex Urban (ESM) and was co-coached by Joe Seney and Susan Edinger Marshall. Judging consisted of morphology, soil profile characteristics, site characteristics, soil classification, and land use interpretations. While host team Cal Poly San Luis Obispo did not compete, HSU outperformed land grant universities such as Utah State, Colorado State, and University of Wyoming. Humboldt State's Wildland Soils option (under the Rangeland Resource Science major) qualifies graduates as federally qualified Soil Scientists.
Received a grant from Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
The HSU Wildlife Conclave team placed second in the The Wildlife Society's Northeast Student Conclave Wildlife Quiz Bowl, in Portland, ME, in a close final with SUNY-ESF.
https://sites.google.com/maine.edu/twsnortheaststudentconclave/home
Published paper in Journal of Mammalogy "Seasonal resource acquisition strategies of a facultative specialist herbivore at the edge of its range"
Received grant from American Society of Mammalogist Grant-in-Aid of Research Grant
Presented a paper entitled "Long-term effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments in oak and chaparral stands of northern California" at the 90th annual conference of the Northwest Scientific Association in Lewisonton, ID.
Presented a paper entitled "Effectiveness and impacts of girdling treatments in a conifer-encroached Oregon white oak woodland" at the 90th annual conference of the Northwest Scientific Association in Lewisonton, ID.
Published paper "Origin of Equisetum: Evolution of horsetails (Equisetales) within the major euphyllophyte clade Sphenopsida"
Published paper in Diversity and Distributions: "Evaluating current and future range limits of an endangered keystone rodent (Dipodomys ingens)"
Wildlife Graduate student Steffen Peterson presented a paper "Using spatially explicit capture-recapture techniques to determine black bear (Ursus americanus) density and space-use in an arid mountain ecosystem" at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA.
Presented paper "Pelagic cormorant nesting success and oceanic conditions in northern California" at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA