Facilities
Student education and research are greatly enhanced by the facilities available at Humboldt
State University, from the newly renovated Wildlife & Fisheries building to
offshore ocean trips aboard the Coral Sea. Undergraduate and graduate students
make us of all our facilities during lab sections of their courses and as part
of their research projects conducted independently or in collaboration with a
faculty mentor.
Wildlife and Fisheries Building
The 41,000 ft2 building was recently modernized
and contains state-of-the art computer, necropsy, and energetic, bioassay, and
water quality labs, graduate student research space, and student study rooms.
Throughout the building are museum displays of birds, mammals, and fish, making
the building a popular destination for local school and tour groups.
The Wildlife Museum houses over 14,000 specimens including
7,900 avian specimens, 2,700 mammal skins and skeletal material, and 3,500
bird egg sets and nests. Museum specimens are used as teaching collection for
taxonomy and conservation/management courses, research, and exhibits.
Wildlife Game Pens
The game pens house captive mammals, birds, and amphibians.
The facilities include several large (the largest is 7100 square feet) enclosures
that are suitable for large mammals and birds, numerous smaller enclosures, and
treatment/veterinary-care rooms. The game pens facilities form an integral part
of the teaching and research mission of the wildlife program by providing live
animals for student and faculty research and for instructional purposes.
Wildlife Stockroom
The Wildlife and Fisheries stockroom is filled with equipment
and supplies to support teaching and research such as binoculars and spotting
scopes, radio telemetry equipment, mammal live-traps, aquatic sampling devices,
GPS units, etc. With proper training, many of the items can be checked out to
students enrolled is Wildlife classes for individual projects.
The Marine Wildlife Care Center on the Humboldt State
University campus is part of a network of wildlife emergency response centers
along the California coast, established by the Department of Fish and Game's Office
of Spill Prevention and Response. In the event of an oil spill, students and faculty
work side-by-side to help rehabilitate oiled wildlife.
The Wright Refuge is a small private refuge managed by the Department
of Wildlife at Humboldt. The refuge is used as an outdoor laboratory for Wildlife
classes and supports research and education programs for Humboldt undergraduate
and graduate students. A constant effort bird banding program was started at the
refuge in 1993 and provides opportunities for training in bird banding and bird
banding education programs for local schools.
The Coral Sea is Humboldt State's marine research vessel. For
nearly 40 years, Humboldt State students have gone to sea to study the ocean and
its fisheries, wildlife, biology and geology. The ship is literally an outdoor
classroom for HSU students.
Natural Setting
And let's not forget our most spectacular "facility" for teaching and
research - the wonderful natural setting that surrounds Humboldt State University!
From the Arcata Community Forest, to the
Arcata Marsh and Wildlife
Sanctuary, to the
Humboldt Bay
National Wildlife Refuge, our community boasts outstanding natural resources
for study, research, recreation, and enjoyment.
