Pacific Southwest Research Station

Education

University of California-Davis, B.S. 1995, Integrated Ecology and Culture (Individual major), Native American Studies (minor)
Oregon State University, Environmental Sciences Graduate Program-Ecology section, Ph.D. Candidate, expected date of completion: June 2007

Research Interests/Duties

I have worked as a fisheries habitat biologist in western Oregon on the Siuslaw and Rouge River National Forests and in Northwestern California for the Hoopa Tribe’s Fisheries Program. I switched from fisheries habitat work in 1999 and started graduate school in the Fall 2000 to study traditional ecological knowledge, tribal/fire management practices and fire ecology. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Environmental Science program-Ecology section at Oregon State University.

My current research involves restoration ecology, traditional ecological knowledge, and ethno-ecology with an emphasis on cultural management and fire ecology of forest, shrub, grassland and riparian environments in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. My work involves projects with the Orleans-Somes Bar Fire Safe council/Mid-Klamath Watershed council, Karuk Indigenous Basketweavers, Karuk Tribe of California, community members, and government agencies on fuels reduction, prescribed fire, ethno-botany, and other natural resources issues. Currently, I am finishing my graduate research which addresses historical and contemporary Native American burning practices, traditional ecological knowledge, prescribed fire in sandbar willow communities, and ethno-botany of sandbar willow and related plants of cultural importance in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion.

I serve as a faculty member of the Rx 510 Applied Fire Effects course at the National Advanced Fire and Resources Institute. I am the appointed Redwood Sciences Lab-Arcata Civil Rights representative. I have served as an ethno-ecologist and socio-cultural consultant/advisor for cultural and natural history projects, community forestry and forest certification programs.

Honors/awards:
2004 Community Forestry Research Fellowship recipient, U.C. Berkeley.

Selected Publications

Hosten, P., O. E. Hickman, F. K. Lake, F. A. Lang, and D. Vesely. 2006. Oak Woodlands and Savannas in Restoring the Pacific Northwest: The Art and Science of Ecological Restoration in Cascadia, D. Apostal and M. Sinclair (eds.), Society of Ecological Restoration International/Island Press. Chapter 4 Pages: 63-96.

Senos, R., F. K. Lake, N. Turner, and D. Martinez. 2006. Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Restoration Practice in Restoring the Pacific Northwest: The Art and Science of Ecological Restoration in Cascadia, D. Apostal and M. Sinclair (eds.), Society of Ecological Restoration International/Island Press. Chapter 17 Pages: 393-426.

Lake, F. K. 2006. Weaving Together Worlds: A Native American/Chicano Experience of Integrating Culture and Science. Society of Chincanos and Native Americans in Science newsletter Student Forum. Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2006 Pages: 18-20. http://www.sacnas.org/pdfs/sacnews/SACNAS_News_06_Spring.pdf

Lake, F. 2005. How Does Tribal Management Work? The Black Oak: Environmental Justice Where California meets Oregon. Page 6. http://klamathrestoration.org/blackoak.pdf

Kimmerer, R. and F. Lake. 2001. Maintaining the Mosaic: The Role of Indigenous Burning in Land Management. Journal of Forestry Vol. 99 No. 11.

Lake, F. 2001. Pacific Lamprey Eels: An Eco-Cultural Perspective. Mountains and Rivers, A Quarterly Journal of Natural History for the Klamath-Siskiyou Region. Summer, Vol. 1, No. 4. Siskiyou Field Institute. Cave Junction, Oregon.

Past and present involvement with professional societies:

Ecological Society of America-Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section.
Society of Ethnobiology.
Society of Ecological Restoration International-Indigenous Peoples’ Restoration Network.