“We are very excited to host the California Geographical Society annual meeting,” said Rosemary Sherriff, chair of HSU’s Geography Department. “Our faculty and students have organized events that will showcase the physical beauty and cultural uniqueness of what lies behind the Redwood Curtain. Those who make the journey to Humboldt will not be disappointed.”
Research presentations, posters and maps–most created by undergraduate students–will be prominent at the event. Full- and half-day field trips to a variety of local sites are other highlights.
The meeting begins with a pre-conference mixer from 6:30-10:30 p.m. on Thursday at Plaza Grill in the Jacoby Storehouse. Friday and Sunday’s activities include 13 fieldtrips, including outings led by faculty and students from Humboldt State and local experts from the region.
The fieldtrips invite conference participants to explore Humboldt’s physical and cultural landscapes through guided tours, and boat and canoe trips to local rivers and seascapes, landforms, lagoons, dunes, coastal hazards, redwood forests and canyons, cultural landscapes, community-supported agriculture, microbreweries, historical heritage, and more.
Following the Friday fieldtrips is a barbecue dinner in the Founder’s Hall Courtyard. Capping off the evening is a keynote address by Dr. Mourad Gabriel of the Integral Ecology Research Center, who will discuss the environmental impacts of illegal marijuana cultivation in California.
Saturday features presentations by students and faculty, and workshops on paper and digital cartography. During lunch, attendees are invited to walk over the world and examine a set of laminated maps representing the entire land area of the Earth at a scale of eight miles to the inch. Geographer Paul Bank will present the exhibit, “Big Maps on Display,” which provides a graphic sense of facts on the ground.
An awards banquet and plenary address by Jerry Rohde, author of “Both Sides of the Bluff,” completes the day’s program.
Among Sunday’s half-day fieldtrips are hikes in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park’s Fern Canyon, a look at local earthquake faults and how they have impacted the landscape around Humboldt Bay, and breakfast at the Samoa Cookhouse followed by a Timber Heritage tour of Samoa’s Historic Logging Museum.