Saturday, April 27th

8:00 AM - Registration

If you have signed up for a day pass or didn't make it to the Friday Social Hour, please stop by the registration table to pick up your badge and conference information.  You can also register for a day pass here. 

9:00 AM Paper Session 1

Session 1A - Rm: 1425
Graduate Papers
Chair - Heather Roberts

9:00am Weather Modification and Indigenous "Ways of Knowing"

Sean Roberts, California State University, Fullerton

9:20am Food security and compounded disasters in a community kitchen in Merida, Mexico

Ana Zepeda, UC Davis

9:40am Evidence of the Hydrosocial Cycle in Urban Environments

Heather Roberts, California State University, Fullerton

Session 1B - Rm: 1307
Undergraduate Papers
Chair - TBD

9:00am Memories of Modesto: China Alley

Alexander  Ayers, Stanislaus State

9:20am Land Classification Project: Stanislaus State’s Cover Assessment & Tree Benefits

Yaniri Piza, Stanislaus State

9:40am Navigation of Malaga, Spain

Tiffani Sandoval Rodriguez, Stanislaus State

10:00 AM Paper Session 2

Session 2A - Rm:  1425
Graduate Papers
Chair - German Silva

10:00am Lies in the Archives: Tracing the Creation of the Toledo Development Corporation

Benjamin Kopania, UC Davis

10:20am Disaster displacement and Quality of Life following the 2018 Camp Fire 

Mitchell Snyder, UC Davis

10:40am Elevating Remotely Sensed Data to Estimate Wetland Soil Salinity

German Silva, UC Santa Barbara

Session 2B - Rm: 1307
Faculty and Professional Papers
Chair - William Selby

10:00am Spatial Accessibility to Prosthetists in the United States

Matt Schmidtlein, Sacramento State University

10:20am Approaches to understanding rural environmental and climate justice in the California North State region

Alyssa A.  Nelson, UC Davis Institute of the Environment

10:40am Extreme Weather Patterns and Climate Change: Finding Silver Linings 

William Selby, Santa Monica College

Session 2C - Rm: 1416
Panel Discussion
Chair - Gregory Ira

10:00am Integrating UC California Naturalist Certification into Geography of California: A CalNat Presentation and Discussion

Gregory Ira, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources

11:00 AM Public Presentation of Posters & Cartography; College Fair

Rm: Shasta College Cafeteria

Join us at the Shasta College cafeteria to view and celebrate student and faculty posters and cartography.  You will also have the chance to participate in our first-ever College Fair!  CSU and UC geography departments from across the state will be available to chat with you about their programs.  

*Note* If you are an exhibitor or are presenting a poster or map at the conference, please meet at the Cafeteria at 10:30am to set up prior to this event.  More info can be found here. 

12:00 PM Lunch at the Shasta College Cafeteria

1:00 PM Presidential Plenary Session

Rm: Shasta College Cafeteria

Changing Fire Regimes: Lessons from Fire History
Carl Skinner

It is well known that northern California and southwestern Oregon are dominated by a Mediterranean Climate characterized by cool/wet winters and warm/dry summers with the degree of each condition moderated or enhanced by distance to the coast and elevation. This type of climate ensures that we have conditions conducive to the ignition and spread of fires on a regular and frequent basis.

Reconstructing the history of fire from place to place helps shed light on how fire appears to have spread across landscapes and influenced the development of vegetative patterns over long periods of time. Tree-ring studies of fire scars and ages of older trees existing before the onset of fire suppression show us that fires occurred quite frequently – many times during the life spans of the older trees. The frequency of fire, interacting with topography and climatic variation, helped to create heterogeneous landscape patterns. The patterns do not appear to have been random, but instead were associated with topographic and soil conditions.

Since the onset of fire suppression, it appears the patterns of vegetative heterogeneity have changed towards landscapes of much greater homogeneity. Fire suppression itself has led to changes in patterns of fire intensity since all but fires burning under the more extreme conditions have mostly been suppressed in their early stages. Thus, fires tend to burn less frequently in most areas helping to increase stand density and fuel accumulation. These changes, along with a warming climate with longer fire seasons, help to increase the area affected by high fire severity. Further, recent research suggests that once areas burn severely, they become more likely to burn severely in subsequent fires. Moreover, these repeated high-severity burns appear to inhibit recovery of what were initially forested areas and may lead to conversion of forested areas to non-forest over the long term.

About Carl Skinner 

Carl Skinner is a retired Research Geographer, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW), Redding, California.  He has degrees from Shasta College, UC Berkeley, and Calif. State Univ., Chico.  He was introduced to fire early while growing up in the Cascade Range on a farm in Shasta County. His career with the Forest Service began in 1968 on an engine crew on the Lassen NF.  He worked in fire management (suppression, prevention, and applying prescribed fire) on both the Lassen and Shasta-Trinity National Forests until 1988 when Carl transferred to PSW in Redding to do research in fire ecology and management.  His research with PSW focused on understanding how fire, climate, and management activities interact to influence forest vegetation dynamics and fire hazard. He retired in 2014 on his grandson’s birthday and is now able to spend more time with family (especially grandkids) while still dabbling in science. Carl was presented with the Harold Biswell Lifetime Achievement Award by the international Association for Fire Ecology in 2022.

2:00 PM Paper Session 3

Session 3A - Rm:  1425
Faculty or Professional Papers
Chair - Alison McNally

2:00 pm In the Driver’s Seat: Using Experience Builder to Customize a Dashboard for Community Engagement

Alison  McNally, CSU Stanislaus

2:20pm Within and without: Notes on critical pedagogies of food geographies

Caroline Keegan, Sacramento State University

2:40pm Comparing Consumption to Population: An Introductory Human Geography Lesson

Kris Bezdecny, Cal State LA

Session 3B - Rm: 1307
Faculty or Professional Papers
Chair - Matthew Derrick

2:00pm Slow Tourism at the Caribbean’s Geographic Margins: A Revisit to Treasure Beach, Jamaica

Benjamin Timms, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

2:20pm The Stockton Survey: Creating a Sense of Place at a University Branch Campus 

Matthew Derrick, Stanislaus State University

2:40pm What's in a name?  Exploring the Wacky World of Apartment Block Toponymy in the San Fernando Valley

Steve Graves, California State University, Northridge

3:00 PM CGS Business Meeting 

Rm: 1416

6:00 PM CGS Awards Banquet

Celebrate the amazing scholarship of our students with great food and the CGS Awards Banquet. This event will take place in a historic barn at the McConnell Foundation's Ross Ranch property.  Please be sure to bring extra layers of clothing to keep you warm during the event... or buy a CGS sweatshirt!   

Ross Ranch  is located at 11973 Old Oregon Trail.  Cones will be set up to guide you to the barn and parking area.