Just two short years ago, many would say something like “It sure rains a lot in Humboldt County.” Listening to alumni stories from decades ago, it certainly seems as if it rained constantly.
Yet today, in 2021, this county and region are in a drought, with drought maps showing a very dangerous trend for the North Coast. Along with this, we are still seeing signs of an active wildfire season throughout the state. Humboldt State University cannot do much about the rain. But HSU, like the College of the Redwoods, can and is doing its part to address dangerous wildfires.
There’s no reason to think that next year’s wildfire situation will be much different than the last few years. Massive wildfires in the west have become a way of life. CR is already leading the way in fire safety and training. At HSU, we are working to build on our extensive expertise in natural resources to help address the problem, and are fast becoming a vital center for fire education and research.
Over the past few decades, the western states have witnessed unprecedented and shocking impacts of wildfire on many communities, forests, and rangelands. Future wildfire projections indicate that fires will continue to get larger, more frequent, and more damaging. As a campus, we look for opportunities to align our expertise toward solving complex challenges. In this context, we start with the knowledge that fire is an essential ecological and cultural process. It has long shaped many of California’s ecosystems and their biodiversity. This area’s dry summers, our lightning, and extensive Indigenous populations contributed to one of the most fire-adapted landscapes in North America. Yet we have drifted far from these historic conditions and the relationship with fire that Native Americans had evolved. Prior to colonization, Native Americans conducted light burns across much of California on a regular basis.
Early settlers often commented on the widespread smoky summer skies resulting from Indigenous burning and lightning ignitions. While Native Americans had numerous reasons for employing fire, one factor was the desire to minimize the amount of fuels on the forest floor — the dried fallen branches and leaves that are indispensable for fueling fires. Resolving our wildfire issues is a daunting task that requires substantial investment of resources and people. The state of California has recently passed several new bills that will encourage prescribed (deliberately set) fire, cultural burning, and other fire prevention strategies.
Simultaneously, Humboldt State has received a historic investment of funding from the state to support our polytechnic vision and planning. One area where we are leveraging this investment is in helping to solve the ever-pressing wildfire problem in California by expanding our existing strengths in fire science education and research.
The interest of HSU in wildfire is not new. With many faculty conducting fire research, one of the largest wildland fire academic programs in the nation, and one of only a few with an indoor wildland fire laboratory, we are uniquely positioned to leverage these existing strengths to expand our programs and enhance their impact. As part of this, students will get coursework that emphasizes traditional ecological knowledge, cultural burning, and other Indigenous perspectives related to natural resource management and fire. Our goal is for students to have the option of selecting a concentration in tribal fire that provides further coursework on tribal history, governance, and law. We anticipate this will help extend our existing partnerships with the many vibrant Indigenous communities in our region and beyond, learning and working with them to help revitalize their cultural burning practices.
Our newly established Fire Resilience Institute will invigorate and expand existing interdisciplinary research founded on partnerships with local managers in Northern California and southern Oregon with a focus on effective solutions to promote fire-resilient communities. In addition to research, the Fire Resilience Institute is actively seeking funds to assist in the training of fire practitioners and to support learning opportunities for fire professionals through the development of a training center and technical fire management courses.
Fire in California is inevitable — the summer drought that characterizes our climate ensures that. But the damage it causes need not be catastrophic. HSU now, and as a polytechnic, plans to continue to use our expertise for the greater good. And, in collaboration with the tribes, forest industry, government, and the College of the Redwoods, we might together meet the daunting challenge lying ahead.
Be well.
Dr. Tom Jackson, Jr. is the president of Humboldt State University. Dr. David Greene is HSU professor and chair of the Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources. Dr. Jeffrey Kane is HSU associate professor of Fire Ecology and Fuels Management.
