Natural Resources and Conservation Commons^™

Restoring Riparian Health And Cultural Resources Along School Creek, A Baduwa’T Tributary, At Blue Lake Rancheria, Humboldt County, Ca, Karlie G. Hall, Fern W. Mcbride, Natalie R. Christenson, Olivia C. Brock, Emily A. King

Environmental Science & Management Senior Capstones

Riparian corridors are essential components of the landscape, supporting healthy streams and surrounding habitats by stabilizing banks, retaining water, and regulating stream temperatures. Indigenous peoples have stewarded these environments since time immemorial, cultivating deep relationships with the land and its culturally significant plants. Their continued ability to practice, transmit, and sustain this knowledge is vital not only for maintaining Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) but also for fostering resilient and healthy ecosystems. The purpose of this project was to revegetate a riparian area of School Creek with culturally significant plants. School Creek is a tributary in the Baduwa’t watershed at Blue …

Estimating Mariana Monitor (Varanus Tsukamotoi) Density With Multiple Methods On Islan Dåno’, Guam, And Its Relevance To Guam Rail (Hypotaenidia Owstoni) Conservation, Jack T. Christie

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Mariana monitor (Varanus tsukamotoi), or hilitiai, is a medium-sized varanid lizard found throughout the Mariana islands. On Islan Dåno’, a small islet off the southwest coast of Guam, hilitai coexist with one of the rarest birds in the world, the Guam rail (Hypotaenidia oswtoni), or ko’ko’, which were introduced to the island in 2010. Since 2009, hilitai have been lethally removed from the island to reduce possible predation on ko’ko’. After 15 years of removal efforts, I sought to 1) estimate the abundance and density of hiltai, 2) assess the effect of removal effort and …

Navigating Wastewater: Minnesota Mining Wastewater Permit Challenges And Evolving Compliance Standards, Madelaine Adamich

Journal of Earth and Life Science

February of 2021 marked the beginning of Minnesota clearly establishing that groundwater qualifies as a Class 1 water in a legal battle involving United States Steel, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, WaterLegacy, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and eventually the Minnesota Supreme Court (MNSC). Minnesota has a water classification system, as required by the federal Clean Water Act, with 7 classes of use. Class 1 waters are waters used for domestic consumption (MPCA 4, n.d.). According to Minnesota Statute § 7050.0220, the acceptable level for sulfate is 250 mg/L in Class 1 …

Aquatic Invertebrate Populations In Roadside Wetlands In Relation To Water Characteristics, Ellen P. Isakson

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The continual habitat destruction and draining of wetland systems makes the need to understand the ecology of roadside wetlands all the more necessary. Roadside wetlands provide valuable habitat to countless aquatic invertebrates, which can provide insight into the health of the wetland system due to their diversity. The objective of this study was to analyze the populations of aquatic invertebrates in roadside wetlands in relation to water characteristics such as pH, salinity, conductivity, water depth and temperature, and dissolved oxygen. This was done by collecting samples of invertebrate populations from roadside wetlands, in addition to data on water quality characteristics …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Dataset For "The Role Of Metacognition And Confidence In Quantitative Reasoning In College Biology Courses", Joseph Dauer, Anum Khushal, Brian A. Couch, Robert L. Mayes, Kent Rittschof

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Quantitative modelling is a fundamental skill for biology students with performance determined by a host of cognitive and metacognitive resources and requiring instructors to integrate key quantitative dimensions into teaching biology. Using an assessment of quantitative modelling in biology, we explored biology students’ (n = 930 higher education students) modelling practices (i.e., abilities to create, test, revise), metacognition about the nature of models and confidence in their capabilities to model. Students performed best on items related to understanding variables used in models and performed more poorly on items related to interpreting, creating, and using models to understand biological phenomena. …

Sites 45ch01104 And 45ch00402 Determinations Of Eligibility, Chelan County, Washington, Benjamin Aa Hodges

All Graduate Projects

This Master of Applied Science (MAS) project report assesses the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility of archaeological sites 45CH01104 and 45CH00402 near Wells Dam in Chelan County, Washington. Field investigations conducted in 2024 included pedestrian surveys, subsurface testing, and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) analysis to gather data on site conditions and potential cultural features. Site 45CH01104 was characterized by pre-contact lithic and fire-cracked rock (FCR) scatters and is recommended as eligible in this report for the NRHP under Criteria A and D due to its association with Indigenous subsistence activities and its potential to yield important archaeological information. It …

Impact Of An Herbicide Treatment In An Annual Grass Invaded Sagebrush Steppe, Jordan Dino Santia

Undergraduate Scholarship

Globally, rangelands are being threatened by invasive annual grasses (IAGs) that alter fire regimes, drive vegetation type conversion, and alter ecosystem function. This study evaluates vegetation responses to an Imazapic treatment applied in 2020 to control a population of Taeniatherum caput-medusae, an IAG, that flourished following a severe wildfire in 2013. The site, located on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) grazing allotment east of Klamath Falls, Oregon, has been monitored annually using the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) protocol since the Summer of 2022. Over this period, very little T. caput-medusae has been detected while bare ground has …

2025 Environmental Flows Report, Adrian Oglesby, Anjali Bean, Martha Cooper, David Pílz

Publications

A selection from the 2025 Environmental Flows Workshop Report's Introduction: 

The term environmental flows means different things to different people. For example, environmental flows might refer to the science underpinning instream flow recommendations; or environmental flows might refer to the tools used to legally allocate water to rivers; or it might most broadly refer to the question, “how much water does a river need to stay alive?” Workshop presentations and discussions covered all these topics and others.

Huchum: The Legacy Of Fire Suppression, Indigenous Land Management, And Media Representation, Carolyn Coyne

Pomona Senior Theses

In my thesis, I examine how various forms of news media from the 1900s to present day in Ohlone territory have framed a particular hegemonic ideology around fire that matches early colonial journal entries – an ideology that is fueled by fear, sensationalism, and exclusion and directly commits violence against the Ohlone people. I investigate this time period because this is when modern news corporations, like The New York Times, rose into prominence. Specifically, I question how media representations of fire inform regulations over controlled burns; what are the similarities in discourse between media framing and policy? What tactics are …

Valuating The Impact Of Unexploded Ordnance (Uxo) In Savannakhet, Laos Through Ecosystem Services Assessments, Nathan Lu

Pitzer Senior Theses

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) impact on countries is not well-documented, since post-war surveys or data collection are often hindered by a lack of appropriate funding and reparation. In Laos, UXO has hardly been cleared since 1964 and thus leaves room for spatially and temporally analyzing the severity of environmental and economic degradation in the area. This study uses the framework of ecosystem services, particularly carbon stock, as a way to provide quantitative metrics of impact to local governments and stakeholders. Through remote sensing data in Savannakhet Province, evidence-based land-use change data was spatially analyzed with geocoded UXO bomb mission locations and …

Iere Annual Report 2025, Erin Largo-Wight, Heather Barnes Truelove, Kelly Rhoden, Nicole Lowe, Ruby Cox

Annual Reports

2025 Annual Report of the Institute for Environmental Research and Education

Examination Of Cooperative Extension As A Bridging Organization To Enhance Cross-Boundary Collaborative Water Management, Mark E. Burbach, Stephanie M. Kennedy, Weston M. Eaton, Kathryn J. Brasier, Daran R. Rudnick, Walt Whitmer

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We explored stakeholders’ familiarity with, trust of, perceived competence of, and shared vision with Cooperative Extension on water-related issues in two states to determine the degree to which Extension is positioned to be an effective bridging organization. Results of surveys in Nebraska and Pennsylvania showed that, overall, neither agricultural producers nor non-farm households were very familiar with Extension. However, both stakeholder groups perceived Extension to be trustworthy, competent, and have similar goals on water-related issues. Extension should renew efforts to bolster its familiarity among these groups to enhance its effectiveness as a bridging organization.

Six Rivers National Forest Hazardous Fuels And Fire Management Project 2025 Orleans Complex Fire Effects From 9/13/25 - 9/14/25, James L. Parr, Nosheen Maung, Darby J. Lewis, Javier E. Margarito, Giancarlo Golloti

Environmental Science & Management Senior Capstones

The 2025 Orleans Complex affected the Klamath National Priority Landscape, designated by Congress as a priority to reduce fuel load and mitigate wildfire risk near rural, at-risk communities. To address the threat of large destructive wildfires, the 2023 Six Rivers Hazardous Fuels and Fire Management Project identified desired ecological conditions, using the right type of fire at the right time and place.

Mangroves: A Lesson On Modeling Changing Shorelines, Willa Skye

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

This lesson is an overview of storm barriers, specifically mangroves and how they maintain shorelines. It is meant to offer a visual experience of coastline protection and provide a background for deeper understanding about intertidal zones and their conservation. Students will spend time creating a solution to a flooding problem by making a mock coast and storm barrier. To wrap-up the lesson, students will pair up, then reflect on their model and then individually write or draw their takeaways.

Spatial Analysis Of Heavy Metal Enrichment In A Historic Appalachian Mining Stream, Eric M. Torres

Research and Creativity Symposium

This study examined the spatial distribution of heavy metals along the Levisa Fork and primary tributaries in Buchanan County, VA and Pike County, KY. Buchanan and Pike Counties have a long history of coal mining, a process known to release heavy metals into surrounding waterways. Exposure to certain heavy metals, such as arsenic and lead, has been known to cause health problems, such as cancer and organ damage. The study looked at concentrations in riverine sediments, surface water and groundwater for As, Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. Sediment samples were collected, dried and digested …

Community-Wide Impacts Assessment Of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix) In The Ohio River, Luka Marques

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Invasive species can cause measurable impacts on the properties of recipient ecosystems, with effects that often vary spatially and temporally. One of the most complex and pressing invasion cases in the United States involves invasive carp. Invasive carp have quickly expanded throughout the Mississippi River Basin, with ecological impacts that may vary across space and time. Silver Carp has the potential to provoke community-wide impacts on native fish abundances and food webs of native fish communities. My study area ranged from the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River to R.C. Byrd Lock and Dam. The Ohio River …

Assessing Potential For Managed Aquifer Recharge On The Manastash Alluvial Fan: A Geochemical Analysis, Elif A. Myers

All Master's Theses

In south-central Washington, the Yakima River Basin spans 6,100 square miles, encompassing approximately 10% of the state. With a growing population and over 400,000 acres of irrigated cropland, reliable water availability is vital for supporting agricultural irrigation, municipal needs, and aquatic habitats. To ensure water for future use, Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR), the practice of applying surface water to aquifers for storage or hydrologic system benefit, has been proposed within the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP). This research explores the Manastash alluvial fan–located west of Ellensburg, Washington as a potential region for two MAR methods: Shallow Aquifer Recharge (SAR) and …

Shrubsteppe Birds Under Fire: Guiding Post-Wildfire Habitat Restoration In The Whiskey Dick And Quilomene Units, Washington, Kevin Clements

All Master's Theses

Bird species, globally, are declining at an alarming rate. Birds of the shrubsteppe are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss caused by agricultural development, invasive vegetation, and heightened wildfire frequency and severity. Fire and invasive vegetation create a positive feedback cycle that threatens complete conversion of shrubsteppe to grasslands. Restoring habitat following wildfire is a top priority for land managers. As bioindicators of ecosystem health, bird populations reflect landscape changes and restoration efficacy. I analyzed bird populations in the Whiskey Dick and Quilomene units of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area in Kittitas County, Washington following the 2022 Vantage Highway fire. Using …

Origins And Mechanisms Of Mobility Of Geogenic Arsenic Contamination In Toutle And Silver Lake, Wa, Usa, William A. Hays

All Master's Theses

Arsenic (As), a common contaminant in groundwater, is toxic to human health and has a maximum contaminant level of 10 ppb set by both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (ATSDR, 2007). In Toutle, WA, USA (30 km west of Mount Saint Helens), a private well, labelled TOU1, was previously identified with ~670 ppb of As and was the impetus of this study. This study targeted private wells in the vicinity of TOU1 to identify the extent of the arsenic contamination, identify the aquifer(s) of concern, and identify the mechanism(s) of mobility.

The wells were screened …