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Cal Poly Humboldt

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

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Full-Text Articles in Geography

Fostering Socio-Ecological Resilience To Wildfire By Interconnecting Knowledge Systems At Cal Poly Humboldt, Jeffrey M. Kane, Erin Kelly, Benjamin Graham, David Greene Jan 2023

Fostering Socio-Ecological Resilience To Wildfire By Interconnecting Knowledge Systems At Cal Poly Humboldt, Jeffrey M. Kane, Erin Kelly, Benjamin Graham, David Greene

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The wildfire-related challenges of Northern California and many other regions in the western United States are daunting in scope and magnitude. Ecologically and culturally salient solutions that limit the negative impacts of wildfire and promote resilience of human and ecological systems will require newer approaches. Through Cal Poly Humboldt and the Fire Resilience Institute, there is greater emphasis on the interconnection of knowledge systems across education, training, research, and management. Here we highlight several on-going efforts that seek to enhance the fire resilience workforce, promote socio-ecological resilience through interdisciplinary projects, and inform management through monitoring and research projects that intentionally …


Smoke, Air, Fire, Energy (Safe) In Rural California: Critical Reflections On An Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, Deepti Chatti, Carisse Geronimo, Cassidy Barrientos, Jana Ganion, Malcolm Moncheur, Peter Alstone Phd, Shawn Bourque, Tanya Garcia, Tesfayohanes Yacob Jan 2023

Smoke, Air, Fire, Energy (Safe) In Rural California: Critical Reflections On An Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, Deepti Chatti, Carisse Geronimo, Cassidy Barrientos, Jana Ganion, Malcolm Moncheur, Peter Alstone Phd, Shawn Bourque, Tanya Garcia, Tesfayohanes Yacob

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article provides a synthesis of the interconnected problems of tenuous energy access, wildfires, and exposures to high air pollution in Indigenous communities in rural California through the lens of ongoing collaborative research being carried out by researchers at Cal Poly Humboldt, Schatz Energy Research Center, Karuk Department of Natural Resources, and the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe. The collaboration is funded by the Strategic Growth Council of the state of California, and we hope is the beginning of a longer term relationship between all partners. We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers drawing on energy engineering, air pollution science, and …


Cannabis, Communities, And Place: (Re)Constructing Humboldt’S Post-Prohibition Present, Josh Meisel, Dominic Corva, Ara Pachmayer Jan 2023

Cannabis, Communities, And Place: (Re)Constructing Humboldt’S Post-Prohibition Present, Josh Meisel, Dominic Corva, Ara Pachmayer

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Since 1990, many Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and students have made cannabis the focus of scholarship and learning. This work has been shaped by the political, economic, and cultural legacies of cannabis in Humboldt County. Scholarly interest spans multiple dimensions of cannabis cultivation, commerce, consumption, and related social issues. As a multidisciplinary team of scholars, Cal Poly Humboldt faculty affiliated with the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research (HIIMR) have also shaped the Bachelor of Arts in Cannabis Studies that will launch in Fall 2023. This is the first social science degree program in the United States with this orientation. …


Full Journal Nov 2022

Full Journal

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The theme of issue 36 of the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations is Perspectives on the State of Jefferson.


Public, Private And Tribal Lands In Humboldt And Trinity Counties, Nate A. Douglass Jun 2019

Public, Private And Tribal Lands In Humboldt And Trinity Counties, Nate A. Douglass

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map titled “Public, Private and Tribal Lands in Humboldt and Trinity Counties” was a commissioned project by Dr. Yvonne Everett in the Environmental Science and Management Department at Humboldt State University. The purpose of the map was to depict the overlap in land ownership and native, pre-European territories. The most challenging part of the project was finding a way to successfully represent multiple land ownership layers while also distinctly calling out former aboriginal territories, all in one map. For this, bold dotted lines with soft concentric halos seemed to do the trick. These aboriginal territories were manually digitized from …


Yosemite & Zion National Park, Sean Flemming Jun 2019

Yosemite & Zion National Park, Sean Flemming

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map displays exciting color gradients representing the variation of the elevation in both Yosemite and Zion National Parks. It was created utilizing United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map 3DEP 1/3rd arc-second Digital Elevation Models and Adobe Photoshop.


Hobet Mine Mountaintop Removal, Brian Murphy Jun 2019

Hobet Mine Mountaintop Removal, Brian Murphy

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Hobet Coal Mine is located in West Virginia, and was an active mining site for 41 years. At the time, it was one of the largest surface coal mines in the United States. The impacts of this particular mine are especially pronounced because of the sheer scale of alteration to the landscape caused by removing the peaks of mountains to retrieve the coal. The once verdant and biodiverse mountains have been obliterated, and when the coal is removed, the remaining earth is filled into nearby valleys, creating a flat plateau. This terrain has been destroyed, poisoned, and exploited by …


Northern Appalachian Land Cover, Joshua Shindelbower Jun 2019

Northern Appalachian Land Cover, Joshua Shindelbower

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map was created using a combination of GIS, photo editing, and graphic design software after an inspiring road trip through the area. It shows the wide diversity of land cover across the region, and a key weak point in the Appalachian Mountains, known as “The Gaps of the Allegheny,” which allowed European immigrants to move toward fertile land deposited by millions of years of erosion. The reader can see that there is very little unused space in the region. Nearly every non-urban inch of land has been occupied for agricultural purposes, down to the thinnest sliver valleys. This map …


Ball Court Map, Adam Wall Jun 2019

Ball Court Map, Adam Wall

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This is a composite map of Structure 30 (STR 30), an ancient Mesoamerican ballcourt in Belize, excavated and documented as an archaeological site by Humboldt State University students and alumni. Each demarcated square or rectangle corresponds to a separate excavation map; field notes were consolidated and digitized individually, then pieced together based on alignment and overlaid atop an outline of the entire structure. Satellite imagery of the site was used as a reference to ensure accuracy. By this method, the previously isolated pockets of data, inherent to individual field notes, instead become parts of a greater whole, allowing a fuller …


Dos Hambres To Gran Cacao Archaeological Mapping, Michael Mcdermott Jun 2019

Dos Hambres To Gran Cacao Archaeological Mapping, Michael Mcdermott

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map displays the spatial relationships and distribution of residential features throughout a portion of the Maya hinterlands near the site of Dos Hombres in Northwest Belize. Combining high resolution LiDAR data with detailed archaeology field data has allowed for accurate mapping of the features in this Mayan landscape. A unique aspect of this particular site is the presence of a causeway or “sacbe” which was used by the ancient Mayan people to distribute resources and move throughout their environment. The background terrain was created by manipulating the LiDAR data to generate a unique visualization that displays the human modified …


The Southern California Coast, Gilbert Trejo Jun 2019

The Southern California Coast, Gilbert Trejo

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The purpose of this map was to create a landscape view of my home region of Southern California that adequately displayed the complexity of it’s natural and man-made terrain. One of the challenges I faced was the amount of labeling in the greater Los Angeles (LA) area. I decided to not include any city borders because moving around LA feels more like moving across various neighborhoods and regions than crossing from one city to another. Slanting the text provided more space without making it too difficult to read. The orientation creates a more interesting layout than the usual north-up orientation, …


Salmon Of The Klamath, Melissa Collin Jun 2019

Salmon Of The Klamath, Melissa Collin

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Klamath is a diverse bioregion widely known for its abundant population of salmon. It extends through the states of Oregon and California, and has a drainage basin of over 15,000 square miles that flows into the Klamath River. The three most prevalent species of salmon in the region (Coho, Steelhead, and Chinook) have all experienced sharp declines in populations since the mid-20th century. This is due to human activity such as commercial fishing, logging, dams, and urban development that has altered the salmon’s historic migration. This map aims to visualize the various waterways and water bodies that flow throughout …


Conflicts On The Klamath, Massimo Lambert-Mullen, Hop Norris Jun 2019

Conflicts On The Klamath, Massimo Lambert-Mullen, Hop Norris

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Conflicts on the Klamath is a collaboration between Massimo Lambert-Mullen, a Humboldt State University Geography alumnus, and Hop Norris, a local artist, activist, and water protector based out of Crescent City, California. The inspiration behind this infographic is the complex and rich contemporary history of the Klamath river, including the establishment of reservations and the construction of dams, roads, and monuments that disrupt the flow of salmon and disrespect sacred sites. It is a politically motivated piece that means to convey the cultural and ecological importance of salmon and criticize government and settler actions to disenfranchise local Yurok, Hoopa, and …


Historic Landmarks And Points Of Interest In Mendocino Ca, Jeremy Mcfarland Jun 2019

Historic Landmarks And Points Of Interest In Mendocino Ca, Jeremy Mcfarland

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Earth’s ocean ties all people together in more ways than one. For centuries, people have been drawn to the ocean for its vast openness and array of resources. Maritime heritage is the protection and preservation of humankind’s past and century old stories of cultures’ use of the ocean. By understanding individual connections to the ocean, more may be inspired to care for it. This map was developed to visualize the unique transition between land and sea, and capture the historic connection of this seascape town.


Book Review, Stanton Morse Jun 2019

Book Review, Stanton Morse

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Overall, Making Spatial Decisions Using ArcGIS Pro: a Workbook is an excellent text for college-level students who have had a formalized introduction to ArcGIS Pro. The authors expertly provide an expansive list of methods and applicable knowledge yet to be had from previous versions. Surely, the text is not perfect, but what it lacks can be remedied by knowledgeable instruction. Kathryn Keranen and Robert Kolvoord succeed in offering a new lens to view the bright future of ArcGIS Pro to those of us still reluctant to entirely switch.


Cartographies Of Debt: Auto Title Loans And Spatial Inequality, Michihiro C. Sugata Jun 2019

Cartographies Of Debt: Auto Title Loans And Spatial Inequality, Michihiro C. Sugata

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Despite being a decade removed from the 2008 Financial Crisis, an alarming number of Americans are turning to alternative finance service providers (AFSP) for “short term” loans. These loans typically carry triple digit interest rates and can contribute to exacerbating the financial precarity of the borrowers. This article investigates the relationship between the spatial distribution of the AFSP industry and considers the impacts of this saturated presence on the individuals who live in these neighborhoods. Using the Phoenix metropolitan area as a site of exploration, I examine where the industry has pooled and look at the descriptive characteristics of those …


A Geographic Account Of Economic, Health, And Educational Disparities In Hartford’S Sheff Region, Casey D. Cobb Jun 2019

A Geographic Account Of Economic, Health, And Educational Disparities In Hartford’S Sheff Region, Casey D. Cobb

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In the current study, I use geographic techniques to examine the distribution of key housing, economic, health, and educational indicators in metropolitan Hartford. I focus in particular on factors that bear upon the lives of children in this area, also known as the Sheff region—a reference to the long-standing Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation lawsuit. The results reveal substantial disparities in the geographic distribution of important resources and outcomes across the racially and economically stratified region. Despite earnest school desegregation efforts, the opportunities, access, and resources available to children in municipalities across the metro Hartford region remain starkly different. Children …


Mapping Maya Hinterlands: Lidar Derived Visualization To Identify Small Scale Features In Northwestern Belize, Jeremy Mcfarland, Marisol Cortes-Rincon Ph.D. Jun 2019

Mapping Maya Hinterlands: Lidar Derived Visualization To Identify Small Scale Features In Northwestern Belize, Jeremy Mcfarland, Marisol Cortes-Rincon Ph.D.

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This paper will discuss the processes and methods of relief visualization of LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM’s) and classification of secondary data to identify archaeological remains on the ancient Maya landscape in northwestern Belize. The basis of the research explores various Geographic Information System (GIS) and cartographic techniques to visualize topographical relief. Graphic terrain maps assist archaeologists with predictive settlement patterns. The Relief Visualization Toolbox (RVT 1.3) aids to visualize raster DEM datasets in the predictive identification and interpretation of small-scale archaeological features. This dataset and methodology can be utilized to answer questions of population estimates, mobility costs, and effectiveness …


Agent-Based Models In Supporting Pedestrian Transportation Planning And Design, Nicholas A. Perdue Jun 2019

Agent-Based Models In Supporting Pedestrian Transportation Planning And Design, Nicholas A. Perdue

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Agent-based models offer a new approach to understanding human-urban interactions in transportation systems, allowing individual entities within a system to be characterized with cognitive and behavioral properties. This paper discussed the role of agent-based representations of pedestrian transportation systems, detailing the underlying assumptions and techniques behind different types of pedestrian models and illustrating the differences between aggregate and individual agent representations. It then turns attention to the case study and the development of a cognitive pedestrian model as a way to illustrate the spectrum of potential spatial behaviors that are enabled by material changes to the transportation network. The paper …


A Geospatial Recipe For Identifying Social Values And Fragmentation Issues Of The Friends Of The Dunes Land Trust, Buddhika Madurapperuma, Jess Barger, Melissa Collin, Christine Emerson, Sean Fleming, Brian Murphy Jun 2019

A Geospatial Recipe For Identifying Social Values And Fragmentation Issues Of The Friends Of The Dunes Land Trust, Buddhika Madurapperuma, Jess Barger, Melissa Collin, Christine Emerson, Sean Fleming, Brian Murphy

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The beach and coastal sand dunes comprise a dynamic and fragile ecosystem that provides a bounty of ecological services. These lands provide protection from coastal erosion and sea level rise, and are home to a rich biodiversity of plant and animal species in addition to their recreational value. The Humboldt Coastal Nature Center and the surrounding coastal dunes (HCNC) are man-aged as a land trust by Friends of the Dunes (FOD). FOD prioritize the restoration of dune habitats and encourages public involvement through community supported education and stewardship programs, guided nature tours, and naturalist training programs. The faculty, students, and …


Introduction, Marisol Cortes-Rincon, Nicholas Perdue Jun 2019

Introduction, Marisol Cortes-Rincon, Nicholas Perdue

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The purpose of this special issue is to highlight the myriad of applications of geographic information systems within the social sciences. As access to geospatial technologies continues to increase, we are seeing new forms of research that highlight how different approaches to spatial analysis can answer complex questions on topics ranging from contemporary urban policy to ancient civilizations.


Full Journal Jun 2019

Full Journal

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) engages with a variety of important policy issues through linking social science data with spatial analysis and by demonstrating the importance of applied GIS in both the public and private sector. GIS, though commonly used in the realms of city planning and natural resource analysis, have a far broader range of applications ranging from analysis of ancient community interactions to modern social media data.


Making And Breaking Trust In Forest Collaborative Groups, Emily Jane Davis, Lee K. Cerveny, Donald R. Ulrich, Meagan L. Nuss May 2018

Making And Breaking Trust In Forest Collaborative Groups, Emily Jane Davis, Lee K. Cerveny, Donald R. Ulrich, Meagan L. Nuss

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

There has been a recent increase in use of an organized, forest ‘collaborative’ group approach for multi-stakeholder input on federal forestlands in the U.S. West. This approach relies on the creation of shared trust to achieve social agreement. Yet growing critiques suggest a lack of trust in the U.S. Forest Service [Forest Service], between stakeholders, and the collaborative process itself. We conducted three comparative case studies of established forest collaborative groups in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to ask how trust is created and damaged or broken in this context. We found multiple, interlinked dimensions to trust, including significant reliance on …


Who’S In Charge? The Role Of Power In Collaborative Governance And Forest Management., Patricia B. Orth, Antony S. Cheng May 2018

Who’S In Charge? The Role Of Power In Collaborative Governance And Forest Management., Patricia B. Orth, Antony S. Cheng

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Collaborative processes for working toward common management goals between individuals and organizations, despite their differences, emerged as one enduring legacy resulting from the Timber Wars in the American West during the late-1980s and the early 1990s. Power imbalances are often cited as a common problem in collaborative processes and can have a lasting, deleterious impact on the collaborative process and its outcomes. For all its importance, however, there is a yet unfulfilled need to understand the extent to which power and power imbalances affect collaborative relationships. Our research uses a case study approach to qualitatively analyze power dynamics within three …


From Conflict To Collaboration: Exploring Influences On Community Well-Being, Leana M. Weissberg, Jonathan P. Kusel, Kyle A. Rodgers May 2018

From Conflict To Collaboration: Exploring Influences On Community Well-Being, Leana M. Weissberg, Jonathan P. Kusel, Kyle A. Rodgers

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Decades after the Timber Wars, land management agencies continue to redefine approaches to forest restoration and management, with impacts for Western forest dependent communities. To better understand this evolving dynamic, we examined the recent history of a rural forest community in the northern Sierra Nevada against the backdrop of changing perspectives on and relationships to resource use, industry, and forest management. Guided by community priorities distilled from interview data, we examine the transition from the Timber Wars to collaborative forest management through the rise of area collaboratives. The success of this work and its potential to genuinely improve community well-being …


The Role Of The Local Community On Federal Lands: The Weaverville Community Forest, Erin C. Kelly May 2018

The Role Of The Local Community On Federal Lands: The Weaverville Community Forest, Erin C. Kelly

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In the wake of the timber wars, communities across the American West have struggled to redefine their relationships to nearby federal forests. The timber-dependent model of the pre-Timber War era, with clear timber targets and economic outputs, has been replaced by more nuanced and less clearly-defined model: ecosystem management. This case study research uses interviews with participants in the Weaverville Community Forest (WCF) to explore the role of a community in managing its nearby federal lands. Momentum for the WCF flowed from a small group of citizens who were invested in the forest despite their cultural and ideological differences regarding …


Rethinking The Fiscal Relationship Between Public Lands And Public Land Counties: County Payments 4.0, Mark Haggerty May 2018

Rethinking The Fiscal Relationship Between Public Lands And Public Land Counties: County Payments 4.0, Mark Haggerty

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In 1908, Congress authorized payments to local governments, including counties and school districts, to compensate for the non-taxable status of the newly established forest reserves within their boundaries. The original program shared revenue generated from commercial activities on public lands, e.g. timber harvesting, not anticipating the major changes in the volume and types of activities on National Forest lands, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, that have played out over the past century. Two subsequent reforms – the appropriated Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) in 1976 and ‘transition’ payments made between 1990 and 2018, including payments associated with the Northwest …


Social-Ecological Change, Resilience, And Adaptive Capacity In The Mckenzie River Valley, Oregon, Timothy B. Inman, Hannah Gosnell, Denise H. Lach, Kailey Kornhauser May 2018

Social-Ecological Change, Resilience, And Adaptive Capacity In The Mckenzie River Valley, Oregon, Timothy B. Inman, Hannah Gosnell, Denise H. Lach, Kailey Kornhauser

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This study explores perceptions of long-term residents regarding links between governance, landscape, and community change in the McKenzie River Valley (MRV) in western Oregon and provides a general assessment of factors affecting resilience and adaptive capacity. Residents interviewed indicated that dramatic changes driven by market competition, timber industry changes, increased regulation, and rural restructuring have occurred in both the landscape and community. The changes that have transpired have redefined the relationship between the community and the landscape, moving away from local dependence on timber harvests to an economy focused on tourism and other ecosystem services. In doing so the community …


Beyond 'Owls Versus Jobs': A Twenty-Year Retrospective Of The Headwaters Forest Controversy, Jennifer Bernstein May 2018

Beyond 'Owls Versus Jobs': A Twenty-Year Retrospective Of The Headwaters Forest Controversy, Jennifer Bernstein

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In 1999, the Headwaters Forest Reserve was established in Humboldt County after more than 20 years of community activism, negotiations, and litigation. The ‘last stand’ of unprotected, privately-owned old growth redwood had finally been safeguarded, though many on the North Coast felt that the final deal fell far short of what was needed to protect the watershed’s ecological functioning. This article uses academic and journalistic research, supplemented by oral histories, to make three main points about the North Coast ‘post deal.’ One, forest management practices in the region have evolved to be more consistent with the practices of ecological forestry. …


Stewardship Contracting In The Siuslaw National Forest, Shiloh Sundstrom, Johnny Sundstrom May 2018

Stewardship Contracting In The Siuslaw National Forest, Shiloh Sundstrom, Johnny Sundstrom

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

(no abstract)