Achievements

Andrew Stubblefield, Rosalea Bond

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Andrew P. Stubblefield, Professor of Hydrology and Watershed Management has recently published a paper titled Sensitivity of summer stream temperatures to climate variability and riparian reforestation strategies
in the Journal of Hydrology, Regional Studies. Coauthors were recent M.S. graduate Rosealea M. Bond and faculty emeritus Robert W. Van Kirk.

Joanna Murphy and Ryan Gustafson

Environmental Resources Engineering

Joanna Murphy and Ryan Gustafson, two recent graduates from the Environmental Resources Engineering B.S. program, just published a peer-review article in "Desalination." Joanna and Ryan looked at heat and mass transfer in membrane distillation, a novel process that can produce high quality water from waste heat. They developed a new model that helps scaling-up the process and validated it experimentally in the lab. As a result, a larger-scale membrane distillation system is now being constructed at HSU. More details here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916415300837

Mark Colwell

Wildlife

Mark Colwell gave a paper summarizing his research on Snowy Plovers at the 40th meeting of the International Wader Study Group in Iceland.

Erin Kelly

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Assistant Professor Erin Kelly of the Forestry Department is working with researchers at the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station to find ways to help forest landowners conduct fuels treatments at large scales and across ownership boundaries to improve fire resilience. Dr. Kelly received $100,000 from the US Forest Service to support the work, which started with documenting known large-scale, cross-boundary fire restoration projects, then choosing case studies across Oregon and Washington. Jodie Pixley, a student in the HSU Environment and Community Master’s program, spent her summer in the Klamath Basin and Ashland, Oregon, working on two case studies.

David Greene, Jeff Keane & Melanie McCavour

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

David Greene and Jeff Kane of the Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources and Melanie McCavour of the Department of Environmental Science and Management have just been awarded a 10-year $800,000 grant from the Bureau of Land Management for a study of Baker Cypress. This tree species, restricted to a few populations in northern California and southern Oregon, has seeds retained in cones that will only open when burned and the continuation of fire exclusion is strongly contributing to its potential extinction. The purpose of the grant is to better understand the reproductive ecology of Baker Cypress, determine the feasibility of using prescribed fire and other treatments to inform the restoration and management of this species, and create the Environmental Impact Report that will underpin the management plan.

Mark Colwell, Dana Herman

Wildlife

Dana Herman (now working for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Sacramento) and Mark Colwell published a paper on Snowy Plover lifetime reproductive success showing that a small proportion of the Humboldt County population contributed disproportionately to population growth. Plovers that bred on gravel substrates of the Eel River produced appreciably more young than those on sandy, ocean-fronting beaches. Their work was featured in the 28 Aug 2015 issue of the eWildlifer (wildlife.org), published by the The Wildlife Society.

Leabeth Mae Peterson

Environmental Resources Engineering

Leabeth Mae Peterson received the SWE Outstanding Collegiate Member award by the Society for Women Engineers, honoring collegiate members who have made an outstanding contribution to SWE, the engineering community, and their campus. She will be honored at a formal ceremony at WE15, the world's largest conference for women engineers, scheduled for Oct. 23, 2015 in Nashville, Tenn. The conference gathers over 8,000 women at all stages of their engineering careers.

Kathryn Hedges, Bruce O'Gara, Wayne Knight

Biological Sciences

Alumni Kathryn Hedges started her own business which focuses on laser-cutting jewelry, holiday decor, and souvenirs. She is using skills from Wayne Knight's graphic design classes and credits her thesis advisor, Bruce O'Gara, with instilling an entrepreneurial mindset. She is currently crowdfunding a Kiva Zip loan to get a studio, hire staff, and manage inventory. You can join her community of supporters at https://zip.kiva.org/loans/15574/i/qs5 or purchase her items at www.splendidcolors.com.

Erin Kelly

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Erin Kelly, Assistant Professor in the Forestry & Wildland Resources Department, and Jonathan Kusel, Executive Director of the Sierra Institute for Community and Environment, had their article on cooperative, cross-boundary management facilitates large-scale ecosystem restoration efforts published in _California Agriculture_, Volume 69, Number 1, January-March 2015. This article summarizes a case study for the Burney Gardens timber harvesting plan where a cooperative, cross-boundary meadow restoration project was undertaken by private & corporate landowners in Eastern Shasta County. The Burney Gardens property is currently under consideration for donation by the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council to the University as a teaching and research working laboratory of Northern Sierra Mixed Conifer forests with a large meadow complex.

Sara Hanna and Ken Fulgham

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Research by the Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources faculty was recently featured in a special issue of _California Agriculture_, a quarterly journal of peer-reviewed research from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The issue titled, _Forestry: Managing for the Future_ highlights a wide range of forestry related research being conducted in California.

Sara Hanna and Ken Fulgham, Lecturer and Emeritus Professor respectively in the Forestry & Wildland Resources Department, had their article on Post-fire vegetation dynamics of a sagebrush steppe community change significantly over time published in California Agriculture, Volume 69, Number 1, January-March 2015. The article summarizes almost 30 years’ worth of data collected on two prescribed wildland fire sites in the Clear Lake Hills area of Modoc County. Significant findings regarding the post-fire plant community trajectories and changes over time have management implications for domestic livestock grazing, interstate mule deer herd winter range use, and the provision of suitable habitat for the threatened Sage Grouse (_Centrocercus urophasianus_).