Achievements

Publications and achievements submitted by our faculty, staff, and students.

Student Rebeca Becdach, Ho Yi Wan, Micaela Szykman Gunther, Katherine Larson, Kellie Crouch, Elizabeth Meisman, Anna Goldman Wildlife Current NR-Wildlife graduate student Rebeca Becdach led a collaborative effort to publish an exciting article on equity in publishing in the high-impact Journal of Wildlife Management. The article is entitled "A celebration and reflection on the equity trend between women and men in wildlife publishing". Coauthors include several Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife faculty members, staff, and students including Ho Yi Wan (mentor and graduate committee chair), Micaela Szykman Gunther (faculty), Katherine Larson (graduate student), Kellie Crouch (undergraduate student), Elizabeth Meisman (graduate student), Anna Goldman (staff), and several collaborators from other institutions. 

Submitted: November 4, 2024

Student Evelyn Lichwa, Micaela Szykman Gunther, Ho Yi Wan Wildlife Former NR-Wildlife graduate student Evelyn Lichwa had her thesis research published in the high-impact Journal of Mammalogy. The article is entitled "Ecological and social drivers of Mexican Wolf home range size across spatiotemporal scales". Coauthors include Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife faculty members Micaela Szykman Gunther (mentor and graduate committee chair) and Ho Yi Wan (committee member), as well as collaborators from the Mexican Wolf Conservation and Management Program in New Mexico. 

Submitted: November 4, 2024

Student Holly Gamblin, Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife Former NR-Wildlife graduate student Holly Gamblin had her thesis research published in the journal Northwest Science. The article is entitled "Habitat Use and Distribution of a Recently Discovered Population of Humboldt Martens". Advisor Micaela Szykman Gunther is a coauthor. 

Submitted: November 4, 2024

Faculty Daniel Barton Wildlife Dan Barton (Associate Professor and Department Chair, Wildlife) was elected chair of the Pacific Seabird Group, a role in which he will serve for the next three years. Pacific Seabird Group is a society of professional seabird researchers and managers that was formed in 1972 out of a need for increased communication among academic and government seabird researchers, and currently has over 500 members from around the world. The society also publishes the journal Pacific Seabirds.

Submitted: February 28, 2024

Faculty Frank Fogarty Wildlife Dr. Frank Fogarty received funding to study how retained patches of trees in timber harvests effect bird communities in managed forests of the Pacific Northwest. Regulations in Oregon and Washington prescribe a minimum number of standing trees that must be retained by timber harvest operations, in part to enhance the biodiversity value of harvested lands. Dr. Fogarty will work with a graduate student to experimentally compare a variety of spatial retention arrangements, with the goal of demonstrating which retention strategies maximize avian diversity post-harvest. Funding comes from the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement.

Submitted: October 12, 2023

Faculty Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther received funding from CalTrans to assess the efficacy and statewide applicability of an electronic elk detection system along a section of Highway 101. The system is designed to detect elk and activate warning signs to increase driver awareness when elk may be on or near the highway. Dr. Szykman Gunther will work with both students and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who will collar target elk, to monitor elk movement and survival. If successful, this system would increase elk movement between fragmented habitats, increase habitat permeability and survivorship, and decrease risks to passing motorists.

Submitted: June 22, 2023

Faculty Ho Yi Wan Wildlife Dr. Ho Yi Wan received a grant from the CSU Agricultural Research Institute to support research on a collaborative project that will develop a viable business plan associated with mass timber production in the coastal region of northern California. Dr. Wan and his lab will be responsible for assessing some of the ecological benefits of this plan, primarily with regards to wildfire risks reduction from timber harvest.

Submitted: March 13, 2023

Student Ivy Widick (former grad student) and Tim Bean (advisor) Wildlife

Published paper in Diversity and Distributions: "Evaluating current and future range limits of an endangered keystone rodent (Dipodomys ingens)"

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Student Steffen Peterson with co-authors Daniel Barton, Jared Duquette, and Micaela Gunther Wildlife

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.

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Student Jade Morning Sky Little, Daniel Barton, Shannon Brinkman, Claire Nasr Wildlife

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

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Student Club HSU undergraduate wildlife students Samuel Vassallo, Devon Michels, Alex Lewis, Evan Miller, and Marcie Mathieu and faculty member Daniel Barton Wildlife

HSU's Wildlife Conclave team was featured in the two ways in The Wildlife Society's national magazine, The Wildlife Professional. The 2019 National Championship team (Samuel Vassallo, Devon Michels, Alex Lewis, Evan Miller, and Marcie Mathieu) are photographed and featured in an article on quiz bowl, and faculty member Daniel Barton wrote a short article entitled "A proud quiz bowl tradition at Humboldt State" for the magazine.

https://sites.google.com/view/bartonlab/lab-news?authuser=0

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Student Claire Nasr Wildlife

Wildlife Graduate Student Claire Nasr Presented paper "Measuring relative disturbance risk to marine wildlife in northern California" at Pacific Seabird Group Annual Meeting, Kauai, HI.

http://www.cvent.com/events/psg-2019-kaua-i/custom-18-bb8e62d508874406a…

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Student Adam Mohr Wildlife

Wildlife Graduate Student Adam Mohr presented talk at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA, "Tule elk habitat selection in the Carrizo Plains Region"

Submitted: April 17, 2019

Faculty Daniel Barton Wildlife

Invited Presentation at the Shamir Research Institute, University of Haifa, Qatsrin, Israel entitled "Apparent Competition, Hyperpredation, and Spillover in Ecological Restoration: The tales of two lupines and a fish"

Submitted: January 24, 2019

Faculty Mark Colwell, Katie Raby, Lizzie Feucht Wildlife

Mark Colwell, Katie Raby and Lizzie Feucht published a paper in Wader Study (https://www.waderstudygroup.org/publications/wader-study/), an international journal dedicated to shorebird ecology and conservation. Their paper summarizes the efficiency of plovers breeding at various locations in Humboldt County over the past 18 years, with the aim of improving conservation and management practices.

Submitted: January 10, 2019

Student Trinity Smith Wildlife

Graduate student Trinity Smith (in Wildlife) won best student poster at the North American Society for Bat Research (NASBR) conference last week for her poster entitled:
“Patterns of western red bat occupancy across a disturbed landscape in California’s Central Valley”. The conference was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico October 24-27 (https://www.nasbr.org/annual-meetings).

Submitted: November 1, 2018

Student MS Student Katrina Smith (with D.C. Barton and D.A. Riggs) Wildlife

Presenting a paper "Site selection in a population monitoring program for Townsend’s big-eared bats: Does cave morphology predict abundance of hibernating bats?" at annual meeting of the North American Society for Bat Research, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Submitted: October 29, 2018

Student MS Student Alyssa Marquez (with L. Diller and D. C. Barton) Wildlife

Presented a paper "Response of headwater amphibians to logging impacts and assessment of restoration potential in Redwood National and State Parks." at annual meeting of the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology, Portland, OR

Submitted: October 29, 2018

Student MS Student Justin Demianew (with A. D. Macedo, J. M. Garwood, and D. C. Barton) Wildlife

Presented an invited paper "The high life: Ecology and conservation of montane reptiles" at annual meeting of the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology, Portland, OR

Submitted: October 29, 2018

Faculty Dan Barton (with P. Capitolo, R. Golightly, H. Carter, and G. McChesney) Wildlife

Presented a paper "Application of auto-regressive state-space models to estimate population trends and observation error from seabird colony counts" at Pacific Seabird Groups's annual conference in La Paz, BCS, Mexico

Submitted: October 29, 2018