Elise M. Welch

Student at Humboldt State University

Being a student at HSU I am here to learn and explore my major to the highest possible extent. The many classes I have been taking and will be taking are helping with my planning and understanding of my major.

I currently live off campus by myself in a trailer park, so right now I am just working and going to school. I don’t have any working experience relating to my major, I just wanted to get settled in and get any job available. I plan on involving myself first in different activities or internships before I settle with a job in my major.

My main focus or goal is becoming a Forestry Technician or Forestry aid positions having to do with fire suppression, fire, fire fuels, hand crew, etc.

I live in Arcata, California which is a great area to go out and explore which is what I like to do in my spare time when I am not working or in school.

With each major there are a variety of classes you have to take in order to graduate in that field. The basic classes are your GED classes and then your major classes.

I took my GED classes at my community college back home where I am originally from, and then I transferred to HSU to take my major classes. With my major, Forestry, there are multiple concentrations to decide on. Such concentrations are soils, fire, restoration, and watershed. I decided to go with fire.

So far I have taken a variety of different classes related to all the concentration fields such as watershed, GSP, botany, and multiple forestry classes.

With all forestry classes, all students are required to take certain classes that are relate to one another. The number one class that everyone is required to take is GSP, which is a geospatial analysis class teaching you about geospatial concepts, geographic information systems, and remote sensing.

Botany is another class required to take for my Forestry major. It is the scientific study of plants, including their physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification, and economic importance.

I found the class very fascinating and informative but it was extremely difficult. We had labs that consisted of a lot of dissecting of plants and analyzing them under microscopes.

The forestry classes that I have taken so far are Forestry Measurements, Forestry Ecology, Forest Operations, and Forestry/Wildland Policy.

Each Forestry class is different, some have labs that required you to go out in the forest to collect data and others are strictly in class with no labs. For the classes that had labs we got to use a variety of equipment and take specific notes recording our data.

Overall the classes have been great and I have enjoyed them all. If you have any questions about any of the classes mentioned or want more information on them feel free to ask me.

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