Arcata

Dedicated as the Redwood Sciences Laboratory (1976), this two-story building houses hydrologists, wildlife and fisheries biologists, ecologists, and other specialists and technicians who conduct watershed, wildland fire, wildlife, and forestry research applicable to forest landscapes across the western U.S.  The laboratory is located on a wooded, 3-acre site on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Arcata, California. It contains office and laboratory space, including a library, conference rooms, and data processing areas.

The Arcata laboratory research projects respond to national priorities of the federal government and U.S. Department of Agriculture to achieve the Forest Service’s mission. Historically, the Arcata laboratory focused on young-growth redwood stand management while also conducting research on harvesting and regenerating old-growth stands at the Yurok Redwood Experimental Forest, near Klamath, California. Since it was opened, the laboratory has also housed staff leading research at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds, located near Fort Bragg, California. Today scientists at the Arcata lab research a variety of topics, including:

• Wildland fires, fuel treatment monitoring, Indigenous fire stewardship, wildfire effects on watersheds, and post-fire forest management and restoration
• Monitoring strategies for evaluating treatments and fire on key biological and ecocultural resources
• Best management practices related to hydrologic processes, water quality, and nutrient cycling for timber harvesting, wildfires, and other land-management concerns
• Interactions within stream food webs, and the dependence of these interactions on fish and wildlife habitat
• Restoration of montane meadows for wildlife and fish habitat as well as fire resistance
• Collaborative work on wildfire risk reduction, silvicultural-timber management, and fuels treatments to provide safety and infrastructure on public, tribal, and private lands