Our very own Kristen Orth-Gordinier won the Patricia O. McConkey Outstanding Graduate Student Award for her thesis research titled: Social Science Research to Help Advance Regional Coordination and Collaboration of Sea Level Rise Planning and Adaptation on Humboldt Bay.

This is an exciting recognition for all of the great research and service she has put in — specifically related to the topic of SLR — during her time at Cal Poly Humboldt. You can see more about the award and her nomination here.

We are excited to announce that our lab, along with the research lab of Sean Craig from the Biology department, are going to be part of a large NSF project led by Marissa Baskett of UC Davis to explore the social-ecological system connect to kelp ecosystems in Northern California. The HD lab will contribute to gathering information related to the socioeconomic systems connected to kelp. New graduate student Jocelyn Enevoldsen will be working as a part of that project. Press release is here.

It was announced last fall that Dr. Richmond will be joining ESM Faculty Member Jennifer Marlow from HSU to participate in five year NSF funded project led by Oregon State University and University of Washington to conduct research related to coastal resilience. The grant will include funding for four graduate students, four undergraduate researchers, and for community partners. LINK

Kristina wrote this article titled “Fighting Against the Tide” for the Sea Grant Blog this week. The post discussed research she did related to community perceptions of SLR and flooding in King Salmon, CA one of the most at-risk residential areas to SLR in California. Check it out!

California Sea Grant wrote about the MPA Human Uses project that our lab is involved in (here). You can learn more about this research project at the project website (here). Photo from one of our focus groups in the project is below.

On Friday May 4th we had the opportunity to meet with Congressman Huffman and his staff to give him an update on the status of the Fishing Community Sustainability Project. We provided him a summary preliminary findings related to the strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for improvement in each port. Graduate students Wyatt Smith, Laura Casali, and Robert Dumouchel gave him updates about the status of the Humboldt Bay mariculture industry, the port of Shelter Cove, and port of Eureka respectively. Ciara Emery had the chance to discuss early proposals to develop off-shore wind energy resources of the coast of Humboldt County. He listened attentively and asked a lot of great questions

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2017/apr/25/video-humboldt-state-launches-two-year-study-devel/

Our project was on the front page of the Eureka Times Standard including interviews with HSU team members, project partners Lisa Wise Consulting, and a local commercial fisherman.

http://www.times-standard.com/article/NJ/20170413/NEWS/170419933

http://magazine.humboldt.edu/spring17/charting-a-course-for-northern-california-fishing-communities/