Our lab regularly houses graduate and undergraduate students, and hosts visiting scientists.
Director
Dr. Jeff Kane: I am an Associate Professor of Fire Ecology and Fuels Management at Humboldt State University Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources. I am generally interested in a broad array of topics related to the ecology and management of fire-prone ecosystems. The purpose of my research is to better understand the impacts of fire and other distrubances on wildlands and to provide information that will improve the management, restoration, and conservation of these ecosytems. Additionally, I use my research to actively involve undergraduate students both inside and outside of the classroom. I use a combination of field and laboratory techniques for my research including standard forest and fire measurements, dendroecological (tree rings) approaches, and laboratory burns.
Graduate Students
The Fire Lab support 3-5 graduate students each semester. Annual deadlines for application materials are February 1 for fall admissions and August 31 for spring admissions.
Current Graduate Students and Projects
Abigail Jones (BS State University of New York)- Fuel treatment effectiveness to wildfire in chaparral stands of northern California
Madeleine Lopez (BS Humboldt State University)- Seed maturation rates of five California conifers and their implications for facultative serotiny
Past Graduate Students and Projects
Alexis Bernal (BS University of California, Berkeley)- Effectiveness of variable density thinning and prescribed fire for promoting resistance to drought-induced bark beetle-caused tree mortality
Caroline Martorano (BS University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)- Long-term vegetation response to mechanical mastication in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area
Bret A. McNamara (BSc Natural Resources, Evergreen State College) Post-fire regeneration and fuel succession patterns in Baker cypress (Hesperocyparis bakeri) forests Spring 2018
Andrew Slack (BS University Colorado, Boulder) - Old-growth sugar pine resiliency and mortality in a fire-excluded mixed-conifer forest Fall 2016
Amy Livingston (BS Humboldt State University) - Understory vegetation response to restoration treatments in Quercus garryana woodlands and prairies of northern California (Advisor: J. Morgan Varner) Spring 2014
Current Undergraduate Research
The Fire Lab supports motivated undergraduate students to conduct independent research for academic credit and as paid assistants on funded research projects.