Milich is a graduate student working with Professor John Stuart in the Forestry and Wildland Resources Department. Milich, Stuart, and their co-author, Professor Morgan Varner, presented a poster on research that focuses on several native cypresses that have cones that open in response to high intensity fires, releasing their seeds on fertile, competition-free soil. Milich's work, funded by a grant from the USDA McIntire-Stennis program, seeks to provide information on post-fire management of cypresses that range from Oregon to the Mexico border. Milich's poster was selected as the top graduate student poster at the conference that counted more than 250 attendees. In addition to Milich and Varner, three other HSU Natural Resources-Forestry graduate students presented posters and a talk, and five undergraduate students from Forestry and two students in the Environment and Community graduate program attended the week-long conference.