for new ESPM faculty and staff
Last updated: 16 September 2025
As a department, ESPM is endeavoring to improve field safety practices for students, volunteers, staff and faculty. Field safety practices should consider physical, mental and emotional safety, with particular consideration of how different identities may experience different field conditions.. As part of this process we have created a web page with numerous resources (with links to specific resources below). This document also summarizes expectations for faculty around field safety in research, teaching and the promotion process.
While there has been growing interest in this topic in recent years, the tragic death in 2023 of Gabriel Trujillo, a graduate student in Integrative Biology (IB), prompted a more concerted effort to improve our approaches and policies to promote the safety of our community.
Both field research and courses with a field component should have a Field Safety Plan. Any time that students, faculty, staff or volunteers are engaged outside of the classroom but as part of research or learning activities, there should be a plan in place. Developing/submitting these plans is department policy as of 2024. By working through the process of developing a field plan, you can increase the potential that participants stay safe and also contribute to a culture of safety in ESPM.
These plans should consider physical, mental and emotional safety.
The ESPM template safety plan for either fieldwork or courses can be found here.
When filling these out, consult the best practices checklists for creating field safety plans. There are distinct checklists for research and for teaching.
Sample field safety plans for research can be found here. A unique template for teaching is in development, and we will provide examples of those when they are available.
Safety plans should be filed with the department here, in order to ensure the department has appropriate information on hand in case of emergency. FAQs on the submission process can be found here.
The campus provides numerous resources for field safety planning here. Regular wilderness first aid classes are subsidized by EH&S.
You are expected to register off-campus travel using the UCAway tool, which also provides insurance coverage for your work. If you book travel through a UC travel provider this is automatic but for all other trips you must do this manually. You are also expected to screen your lab for field safety risks during your annual Lab Hazard Assessment.
Some work requires compliance with California laws, e.g. around outdoor work in hot conditions, or when wildfire smoke is present. Mandatory and non-mandatory online trainings on these topics are on the UC Learning Center.
Graduate classes (201A and 375) each include at least one session on field safety. Students you work with who have taken these classes should be familiar with basic expectations around safety, but you have an opportunity to set a good example through additional planning work and resource allocation with your team.
We also have prepared a Graduate student 'know your rights' 1-pager. This document is meant to help empower graduate students to take charge of their own safety, and remind them that they have the right to address concerns with their advisor/PI.
While addressing field safety is not required as part of the promotion evaluation process, department and division chairs can consider it in their evaluations. You should feel free to highlight your contributions in your self statements.
The Field Safety Committee drafted a suite of recommendations for the department in April 2024. These were revised with early discussion with faculty and then were shared for formal feedback. This feedback was incorporated and revised recommendations were approved by the department in November 2024.
The committee also created some FAQs for faculty that address questions around both safety and these recommendations.
New recommendations will likely be proposed at some time in the future, depending on both needs and shifts in safety culture.
Campus Environmental Health and Safety Office (EH&S)
The campus EH&S office is an important campus-wide resource for safety, which includes both lab and field safety.
They regularly host field safety trainings (including Wilderness First Aid), have some equipment for loan and are a resource for understanding state requirements for safety.
Sara Souza (sarasouza@berkeley.edu) is the Program Director for UC Field Research Safety, and is a very helpful resource.
If you want to report safety concern, you can submit it directly to EH&S.
2024 report on ESPM, ERG, PMB, and IB field safety surveys
To better understand the current safety culture and potential needs, the ESPM field safety committee partnered with the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), Plant and Microbial Biology (PMB) and IB to conduct surveys of undergraduate students, graduate students, staff and faculty.
Additional resources: Departmentally-compiled readings and resources, Campus resources
You can find the downloadable/printable version of the document here.