Featured work for the Humboldt State University GIS Program

Winner of Intermountain GIS 2021 Conference Professional map

The dramatic footprint of many of these surface mines put into context the human impact to the environment. The National Mine complex, which includes the western Empire Mine and eastern Tilden mine, is visible from space. The rust orange tailing ponds stretch miles and appears as two orange lakes southwest of the city of Marquette. The near by town of Palmer is a mere fraction of the size of the size of the National Mine. Not only is there long lasting damage to the terrain and depletion of resources, this extractive process is not economically sustainable. Empire Mine has already closed due to it becoming unprofitable, causing layoffs and economic contractions for the small surrounding towns.

Featured in the 2020 NACIS digital map gallery

Winner of Analytic Presentation category at ORURISA 2021 GIS in Action map gallery

This map initially began as an ecological assessment of the nearby Mad River watershed, which provides water for the Humboldt Bay region. The biophysical settings is a model of forest composition prior to European colonialism, a relic of conditions that do not exist anymore. Land usage such as timber extraction, as well as fire suppression by forest management policy, and genocidal suppression of indigenous people and fire practices has lead to changes in forest composition. During the production of this map, the August Complex fire became the largest fire in California history and spanning over one million acres, burning for 88 days between August and November. The scale and intensity of this fire is a testament to how powerful human land management practices can be to the changing the fire regime.

These maps were created in Advanced Cartography class at Humboldt State University. I would like to thank my cartography advisors Dr. Amy Rock, Dr. Nick Perdue, and Aaron Taveras for providing support and advice for my maps, as well as encouraging me to attempt new techniques and apply my skills.

Interactive document searching tool is available here

This map is a geolibrary that contains decades of oceanography research from the personal collections of Humboldt State University Professor Dr. James Avery Gast and University of Washington Professor Dr. Tommy Thompson. This map and the document ordering system were created while employed at Thomas Gast & Associates Environmental Consultants.