The Magazine of Humboldt State University | Spring 2012 For the Birds The Rewards and Challenges of Avian Field Research Spring2012 2 From the President 4 News in Brief Searching for Gravity's 10 True Nature Sudden Oak Death 12 Could Mean Big Fire Threat Humboldt State Timeline 14 Staying the Course: 1938–1962 Campus Scene 16 Marine Lab Gets Big Upgrade Ultimate! Generations of HSU Students Have 18 Taken Discs to a Whole New Level For the Birds 24 The Rewards and Challenges of Avian Field Research Words for the Wild 32 Promoting Conservation and Student Careers Through Creative Writing 2012 Distinguished 34 Alumni Awards 35 Alumni News & Class Notes 8 Things 48 The Quad Meet Humboldt 49 Matthew Thompkins ON THE COVER: On a crisp morning in Samoa, Calif., students in a Wildlife Management class learn techniques for banding raptors like this red-tailed hawk. THESE PAGES: A hat keeps newly hatched snowy plover chicks from wandering off as they receive their first U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identification bands with the help of HSU students. Photo Courtesy of Luke J. Eberhart-Phillips [ Feedback ] I appreciate receiving your fine from the President magazine that keeps me up-to-date on the many current events of a great institution that played a major role in shaping my I FEEL FORTUNATE to be future. I am that lone green dot at the top of able to live in a beautiful envi- northern Iowa on your U.S. distribution map ronment such as Humboldt of HSU alumni (“Where They Are Today,” County. Daily, I enjoy looking fall 2011, p. 27). After delving into the at the redwoods that surround world of Roosevelt elk ecology and social and adorn the Humboldt organization in the late-1960s at Prairie campus and enjoy walks on Creek State Park for my master’s in game the local beaches. Those of management, the fire was lit to expand you who attended Humboldt my horizons on other large mammals State University can, I am sure, and continents. Four years of researching towering redwoods at Prairie Creek will appreciate the local splendor of the endangered vicuña in the altiplano of always be a significant part of me. Thank the area. Like many others, I Peru at over 14,000 feet elevation earned you Humboldt State University. Thank you am concerned that such a beau- me my next advanced degree from Utah Professors Dassman, Mossman, Harris, tiful environment may not be State University. From there I spent the and Genelly … wherever you are … for the available to my grandchildren next 25 years conducting and overseeing inspiration and direction you gave me. It all or their children. field studies on the Patagonia guanaco in would not have happened without you. I am grateful that many southern Chile. I was fortunate during an students and researchers here exciting career to have authored a plethora William L. Franklin, Ph.D. at Humboldt State University of publications, helped produce television Itinerant Mammalian Wildlife Ecologist recognize this as well and work specials on my research for Nova, Nature, Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University tirelessly to improve the world Discovery and National Geographic, and around us. As you will note in wrote and photographed three feature this edition of Humboldt maga- articles for National Geographic. Although EDITOR’S NOTE: Professor Franklin’s most zine, the research work by professors like Matt Johnson, Luke George and Mark Colwell officially retired, I’m now conducting recent writing was a comprehensive review of focus on understanding the habitats of birds, some of which are local. guanaco field studies in the Falkland Islands the entire camel family in “Handbook of the Many years ago, I married a behavioral ornithologist and had the pleasure of occasionally in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast Mammals of the World (Hoofed Mammals)” helping her gather data on the mating system of cardinals. I was most impressed by how of southern South America. I’m active in edited by D.E. Wilson and R.A. Mittermeier. difficult this science was and the cover story in this edition emphasizes this point well. As the Camelid Survival Service Commission the work of my colleagues demonstrates, it is becoming increasingly important to study of International Union for Conservation of the ecology and behavior of avian species. Humboldt has outstanding faculty who, through Nature and continue writing. The lessons their infectious passion for the environment, have inspired students to become the new learned during those foggy mornings at leaders of efforts to preserve our natural world both for other species and for ourselves. Gold Bluffs Beach and in the shadows of Humboldt students, like none I have ever met, are committed to social and environmental responsibility and will be a part of the solution for our planet. I want to thank all of you who have attended Humboldt State for the contributions you are making to the world. I am sure that, having been Humboldt State students, you share many of the same ideals that our current students hold dear. Please come and visit LETTERS ARE WELCOME and may be published in upcoming issues of Humboldt magazine. us from time to time and enjoy what Humboldt has to offer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Sincerely, Send to [email protected] or the address listed below. Keep in Touch Email: [email protected] twitter.com/humboldtstate Mail: Humboldt magazine Rollin C. Richmond facebook.com/humboldtstatealumni President Marketing & Communications 1 Harpst St., Arcata, CA 95521 flickr.com/humboldtstate 2 Humboldt magazine | Spring 2012 Humboldt State University | humboldt.edu 3 [ News in Brief ] Understanding the CHAMPS! Jacks Claim Conference Title Economics of Bee Demise Humboldt State’S football squad quarterback, was selected as Offensive For the Jacks, the GNAC championship When A MYsterious illness struck the bested the Western Oregon Wolves 37-7 Player of the Year, and Jona Faraimo, a was the program’s first title since winning country’s honeybee population in 2006, last November to secure the team’s first linebacker who led the Jacks’ defense, was the now-defunct Northern California scientists struggled to understand how Great Northwest Athletic Conference chosen Defensive Player of the Year. Athletic Conference in 1995. It’s the 10th billions of honeybees disappeared from (GNAC) championship title. The recognition did not end with the conference championship in HSU football their hives, seemingly overnight. The win not only netted a conference GNAC. In January, Proulx and running history, which dates back to 1924. The phenomenon is called colony title, it avenged the Lumberjacks’ only back Lyndon Rowells were both named The league championship—capping collapse disorder. Researchers still loss that season—also against Western to the Don Hansen NCAA Division II off a 7-1 league record and a 9-1 overall aren’t sure how to stop it—and other Oregon in a 40-24 match in early October. All-America team. Meanwhile, defensive record—was well deserved. But despite Brian Gross factors like mites, climate change and ”There’s no doubt who the best team in end Brendan Faubion was selected by a winning conference championship, the urbanization—from devastating the the GNAC is this year—Humboldt State,” the Austrian Football League to play and Lumberjacks were left out of the NCAA world’s honeybee population, which has experienced a 50 percent said Head Coach Rob Smith. coach for the Salzburg Bulls beginning in Division II Playoffs. drop in the past half century. Conference laurels were not far behind. March. Defensive back Guy Ricciardulli The Jacks’ 2012 campaign kicks off on At Humboldt State, Economics instructor Brian Gross is looking Smith was honored as the GNAC Coach of was drafted to the Carlstad Crusaders in Aug. 30 against Mesa State. Keep up with for answers. Gross, who joined the department last fall, is one of the Year. Mike Proulx, the Lumberjacks’ Sweden. Defensive back Diamond Weaver all the action at hsujacks.com a handful of experts working on the Bee Informed Partnership, a Campus Nixes signed with the Abiliene Ruff Riders in national study of honeybees and beekeeping sustainability funded the Lone Star Football League. And the through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Over the next five years, San Jose SaberCats invited defensive end Brian Blumberg (31), Brendon Faubion (47), Gross and a team of economists, entomologists, epidemiologists Bottled Water Jonathan Wells and defensive back Jordan Jona Faraimo (35) and their teammates and agriculture experts will try to explain the decline. McGowan-Smith to the team’s training celebrate after the Jacks secured the Great It’s important work because of the critical role that honeybees Humboldt State has stopped selling plastic water camp. The SaberCats are in the Arena Northwest Athletic Conference title. play in the global food chain. According to the U.S. Department of bottles on campus, making it the first public university Football League. Agriculture, about $15 billion in U.S. crops—like apples, cranberries, in California and just the third in the nation to do so. melons and broccoli—benefit from honeybee pollination and The ban came in response to concerns voiced by one-third of every bite we eat is pollinated by honeybees. California- students. It includes all campus marketplaces and grown almonds—80 percent of the world’s supply—depend entirely eateries, including the “J” cafeteria, as well as on honeybee pollination. The almond industry brings bees from vending machines. around the country to California’s Central Valley each spring, where TC Comet, director of HSU’s Office of Sustainability, they pollinate nearly 800,000 acres of almond orchards between says the move makes sense for a campus with a long Bakersfield and Red Bluff.