New CE Forest Advisor in Northern California

Ryan DeSantis is the new University of California Cooperative Extension Forestry and Natural Resources Advisor for Shasta, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties. Ryan will be responsible for conducting an extension, education and research program that resolves needs and problems in the fields of forest management and ecology.

Ryan grew up in rural New Hampshire, where he fell in love with hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, mountain biking, and spending time in the woods of New Hampshire and Maine in general. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Forest Science from the University of New Hampshire and then he spent two years working with a National Park in Bulgaria as an ecological volunteer for the U.S. Peace Corps. When he returned to the U.S., Ryan moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he attended Michigan Technological University and earned his Master’s degree in Applied Ecology. Ryan’s Master’s thesis work involved the post-harvest effects of prescribed fire and mechanical treatment on jack pine forest biodiversity and fuel load. Following graduate school, Ryan worked in a fire ecology laboratory at the University of Massachusetts and on fire crews at Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts) and Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming). After leaving the Tetons, Ryan went back to graduate school and earned his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University in Natural Resource Ecology and Management with a concentration in forest resources. The goal of Ryan’s Ph.D. dissertation work was to advance the understanding of fire and drought as disturbance forces that determine the species composition and structure of upland oak forests in Oklahoma. Following his Ph.D., Ryan worked as a postdoctoral research associate for the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Forest Futures Project, where he determined the economic and ecological impacts of forest threats to Midwest and Northeast U.S. forests.

Ryan is excited to have the opportunity to work with oak and conifer ecosystems and fire, and to once again be surrounded by mountains and forests. He is also excited to explore the trails of rural Trinity, Siskiyou and Shasta Countie, try hunting black-tailed deer, and fishing on the Sac and Trinity Rivers for the first time.

Ryan is stationed at the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Redding but he expects to spend plenty of time working in Trinity and Siskiyou Counties. His contact information is:

Ryan DeSantis, UC Cooperative Extension
1851 Hartnell Avenue
Redding, CA 96002-2217
530-224-4900 
rdesantis@ucanr.edu 

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