Proponents of the Humboldt Cannabis Reform Initiative are standing by their proposal that would overhaul the county’s cultivation regulations if passed by voters next year, saying the county’s analysis of the measure is “packed with factual errors, untruths and distortions.”
A county staff report on the 38-page initiative presented to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors last month warned it would have “dire consequences” for the industry, saying that in addition to capping the number and size of new cannabis farms in the county, it would also immediately render 400 of the county’s permitted farms “non-conforming.” Due to ambiguities in the initiative’s language, staff also posited the initiative could then prevent these already permitted farms from making environmental improvements — like adding solar arrays or increasing water storage — and obtaining non-cultivation permits that would allow for tourism or processing on site.
At the supervisors' March 7 meeting, dozens of cultivators addressed the board to decry the initiative, warning it would have dire impacts on an already struggling industry.
The board appointed an ad-hoc committee — comprising Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell and Planning Director John Ford — to meet with the initiative’s proponents to see if they could find common ground and persuade them to pull the initiative from the March of 2024 primary ballot. (Because the initiative has qualified for the ballot it can’t be amended before going before voters, and if passed it could only be changed by another vote of the people.)
The ad-hoc committee reportedly met at least twice but does not seem to have moved the needle, as the initiative's proponents sent a letter to the county last week alleging the county staff analysis contained “inaccuracies and mischaracterizations.” Further, the letter warned that continued efforts by the county to disseminate information about the initiative could run afoul of the California Political Reform Act, which prohibits public officials from using public resources to influence campaigns.
“The county can’t use our tax dollars to take sides in this fight,” said proponent Mark Thurmond in a press release. “They have to be thorough, accurate, and fair — and that’s why the board needs to retract its analysis of our initiative. The 7,000 people who signed our petition deserve to be represented too.”
With Humboldt County’s cannabis cultivation industry on edge after an initiative to overhaul local cannabis regulations qualified for next year’s ballot, an ad hoc committee is attempting to negotiate with the initiative’s proponents to see if they’ll withdraw it.
But questions have abounded about whether it’s appropriate for one of the Humboldt County supervisors who volunteered to be on the committee to take part in its discussions and vote on the issue.
The Fair Political Practices Commission opined in a non-binding advice letter last year that Second District Michelle Bushnell was right to recuse herself from a vote on tax relief for the cannabis industry early in 2022 because — as the owner of a cannabis farm — she had a conflict of interest on the issue and the vote’s outcome could “have a reasonably foreseeable, material financial impact on [her] real property interest.”
But Bushnell, who holds a permit to cultivate 25,560 square feet of outdoor cannabis and 20,000 square feet of light deprivation cannabis on a property she owns in Southern Humboldt under her Boot Leg Farms LLC, did not raise the potential conflict when voting on the initiative earlier this year or volunteering to serve on the ad hoc committee aimed at keeping it from the ballot. (Bushnell’s son also holds a permit to cultivate 17,900 feet of outdoor cannabis on a property Bushnell owns.)
Leann Greene of the Humboldt Workforce Coalition at the Humboldt County Library in Garberville on Feb. 8, 2023.
GARBERVILLE — Leann Greene’s rose-colored glasses are scratched, cracked, sitting askew, but still firmly planted on her face during her latest monthly open house for the Humboldt Workforce Coalition.
For three hours this Wednesday afternoon in a sunny conference room at the public library, apprehensive cannabis workers, lured by a segment on the community radio station KMUD, trickle through, seeking a potential refuge from their collapsing industry. Greene is their counselor and confidante, a relentless cheerleader promoting new career opportunities.
“So dream big. It’s your life, right?” she tells one young man looking for help connecting to job possibilities in a place where there don’t seem to be many right now.
It’s a mantra for Greene.
“You’re kind of reinventing your life here, so dream big,” she tells Daniel Rivero, who fears he could lose his job at any moment after his hours were cut back at the small warehouse where he manufactures cannabis products for $17 an hour.
A crash in the price of weed over the past two years has sent California’s cannabis market reeling — and with it, the communities that relied economically on the crop for decades, even before the “green rush” of commercial legalization.
In the Emerald Triangle — the renowned Northern California region of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties that historically served as the hub of cannabis cultivation for the state and the country — growers who can no longer sell their product for enough to turn a profit are laying off employees and shuttering their farms. The cascading financial impacts have left local residents with broken dreams and a daunting question: If not cannabis, then what?
“We just need to reassess this whole situation as a community of what we can do to evolve with it instead of trying to go against it,” Rivero said.
PostedByKimberly Wear
on Mon, Oct 31, 2022 at 2:29 PM
Michelle Bushnell
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is set Tuesday to consider the public censure of Supervisor Michelle Bushnell after an investigation sustained an allegation that the Second District representative mistreated a Planning Department staff member during a December of 2021 meeting.
The staff report states the “board action is limited to public censure,” which would require a two-thirds vote, in a situation when a violation of the board’s code of conduct is sustained following an investigation, in this case by Watsonville-based attorney Richard E. Nosky, who is described as a neutral third party investigator.
The findings relate to a grievance filed by a county planner late last year, which alleged the supervisor interfered with the issuance of a cannabis permit on behalf of a constituent and then acted unprofessionally — berating staff — in a meeting with the applicant, the planner and Planning Director John Ford.
According to Nosky’s summary, Bushnell violated two of the board's codes: the first being the requirement to practice civility and decorum in discussions and debates and the other a requirement that supervisors support a constructive and positive workplace for county employees.
Local cannabis farmers say plummeting wholesale prices have left many on the brink of insolvency, prompting them to push for tax relief.
California is significantly overhauling its cannabis tax structure, including entirely eliminating a tax on growers, in an effort to boost a struggling legal industry begging for relief.
The changes, which were adopted last week as part of a broader state budget agreement, will also create tax credits for some cannabis businesses, expand labor rights within the industry and switch collection of a state excise tax from distributors to retailers. That tax will pause at 15 percent for three years, after which regulators could raise the rate to recoup lost revenue from discontinuing the cultivation tax.
Prominent cannabis industry groups praised the plan for its potential to lower costs and help make legal sales more competitive with an illicit market that remains robust six years after California voters legalized recreational marijuana. Yet even as the measure won overwhelming approval in the Legislature, it was met with vocal discontent from retailers who say they will not benefit and several lawmakers who complained that it did not do enough to address ongoing racial disparities in the industry.
While efforts to secure further assistance from the state may continue, they seem unlikely to gain favor any time soon with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed the tax revision on Thursday.
“I’m incredibly proud of this bill. It accomplishes an incredible amount of things for the betterment of all Californians,” Nicole Elliott, director of the Department of Cannabis Control and Newsom’s top cannabis adviser, told CalMatters. “So I think we need to take a moment to reflect on the fact that something great got done.”
Local cannabis farmers say plummeting wholesale prices have left many on the brink of insolvency, prompting them to push for tax relief.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is moving forward with providing local cannabis farmers some tax relief after a flooding of the wholesale market sent prices plummeting in recent months.
The board voted 3-1, with Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell having recused herself due to a potential financial conflict of interest and Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone dissenting, to give farmers until September to make payments on bills due this year, while reducing next year's tax bills by 85 percent. Citing concerns over the tax breaks' impact on the county budget — which County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes warned could result in a hiring freeze — Madrone had supported a more modest 50-percent reducing in the coming year's taxes.
Cannabis plants at the Pure Beauty growing site in Sacramento on Jan. 26, 2022.
When California voters legalized marijuana for recreational use in November 2016, it was also a victory for Gavin Newsom, who spent months traveling the state as the face of the campaign. At an election night party at a San Francisco nightclub, the then-lieutenant governor celebrated this “point of pride,” telling attendees that California had sent a “message powerfully to the rest of the nation.”
It was an important resume-building moment for Newsom, already deep into his first run for governor, who during decades in office has put himself at the forefront of political change. In a profile in Billboard magazine a few months later, he acknowledged that his legacy and that of Proposition 64, the legalization measure, were now tied together:
“Put it this way: Everything that goes wrong, you’re looking at the poster child.”
Five years later, Newsom is governor, and farmers, dispensary owners and other advocates are calling on him to rescue a legal market they say has been pushed to the brink of collapse by a steep drop in prices — and the inattention of a man who was once its most prominent proponent.
“He championed our message and he rode our coattails all the way to the top,” said Michael “Mikey” Steinmetz, co-founder of Flow Cannabis Co., a manufacturer and distributor.“We feel that he has turned his back in some capacity.”
The cannabis industry’s appeal for help is aggressively aimed at the heap of taxes that put it at a disadvantage with the robust illicit market in California.Steinmetz has proposed a boycott of the state’s cultivation tax unless there is financial relief in the upcoming state budget.
Newsom expressed support for taking unspecified steps to “stabilize the market” while unveiling his budget proposal on Jan. 10, but he seems unlikely to embrace radical changes to the system he put his name on with Prop. 64. No plan has yet materialized, and his office declined to make him available for an interview.
“It is an oversimplification to say that tax reduction will solve all of the industry’s problems,” Nicole Elliott, director of Newsom’s Department of Cannabis Control, told CalMatters. “It’s just a vast oversimplification of the number of variables that impact the health of the legal market and that support or foster illegal activity. It is not tax alone.”
Pro-legalization, but not pro-marijuana
Newsom once stood, cautiously, at the forefront of the legalization movement in California. He declared at the time that he was not “pro-marijuana” — he says he has never tried it — but “vehemently anti-prohibition.”
As lieutenant governor, he formed a blue ribbon commission on marijuana policy, which issued a report in 2015 warning that legalization would be a “process that unfolds over many years requiring sustained attention to implementation.” Prop. 64 followed the next year, pitched by Newsom more as an opportunity for social justice — to erase the damage of a drug war that had disproportionately targeted Blacks and Latinos — than for new tax revenue.
After 57 percent of California voters approved the measure, his focus has shifted to issues including health care, homelessness and early childhood education. In his first three years as governor, Newsom rarely discussed marijuana policy publicly, even before the coronavirus pandemic response consumed his administration.
That silence has disappointed many in the cannabis industry who expected he would continue to lead on the issue.
Cannabis products for sale at Bloom Room at Union Square in San Francisco on Jan. 11 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
But there is widespread frustration with Newsom’s inaction on the problems preventing the licensed system from competing as a viable alternative to the dominant illicit market. Legal sales in California reached $4.4 billion in 2020, according to the industry publication MJBizDaily, while experts estimate that illegal sales could be at least twice as much.
Difficult transition to legal market
Those problems are not entirely Newsom’s creation.
Long before legalization, the Emerald Triangle of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties established itself as the base of marijuana cultivation for the entire country, making the transition to a regulated system uniquely challenging in California. Many long-standing farmers have been reluctant to make the jump. And despite a stated intent to give small growers a five-year head start, regulations on acreage limits adopted before Newsom became governor, though not over his opposition, opened the door for investors to link parcels into megafarms and flood the market with their crop.
Prop. 64 requires local governments to opt in, so recreational sales are still blocked in about two-thirds of jurisdictions, including some large cities such as Bakersfield and Anaheim. There are 866 licensed dispensaries in California, along with 374 licensed marijuana delivery businesses. That’s just a fraction of the number per capita in other states where cannabis is legal, including Oregon, Washington, Colorado and even Oklahoma. Growers and distributors say they have fewer shops where to sell their products now than when only medical marijuana was legal and licensing for dispensaries was looser.
In addition, taxes — stacked by state and local authorities for growing, distributing and selling — raise the price of legal marijuana by as much as 50 percent for consumers.
“It is an oversimplification to say that tax reduction will solve all of the industry’s problems.”
Nicole Elliott, director of the California Department of Cannabis Control
Industry advocates argue that the Newsom administration has not done nearly enough to lower costs for licensed businesses, or to expand the legal market.
“He’s responsible for setting the agenda for what’s important in the state,” said Imelda Walavalkar, chief executive officer of Pure Beauty, an “environmentally conscious” marijuana brand that has indoor growing and production facilities in Sacramento. “It doesn’t seem like a super priority for them.”
The state, for instance, has not ramped up pressure or incentives to persuade reluctant communities to permit recreational marijuana sales. Social equity programs started by some cities and counties to diversify the industry withmore people of color, formerly incarcerated people and residents of neighborhoods with historically disproportionate marijuana arrest rates are taking years to get off the ground.
Last year, Newsom vetoed the industry’s priority legislation, which would have authorized billboard advertising on California freeways, citing the need to protect children from exposure to marijuana.
Walavalkar said a vicious cycle of competition — with venture capital-backed businesses that can afford to operate at a loss to gain market share and licensed growers who continue to divert some of their crop to the illegal market to subsidize their operations — has driven prices in a race to the bottom.
“There’s just not a big margin left, no matter how you slice it or how slimmed down you are,” she said.
‘End of days’ for small farmers
The situation has reached a breaking point in recent months for growers including Ingrid Tsong, who runs Beija Flor Farms in Mendocino County with her husband, Jonathan Wentzel. Prices have fallen so far that their business is now losing money, and the couple is unsure they can afford to plant a crop this year.
“It is like end of days here. We do not know,” Tsong said. “I can’t find my way through this morass.”
Tsong said she and Wentzel were skeptical of Prop. 64, because they believe it lacked sufficient protections for the well-established industry of small cannabis farmers that has long existed on the margins in California. Still, after it passed, they stepped forward to license their operation.
The combination of high taxes and fees and an acreage cap for their farm, an oversupply of marijuana on the legal market and few places to sell it, has squeezed them from all directions. Tsong said their crop last fall cost about $460 per pound to produce, a third of that from California’s cultivation tax for growers. But wholesale prices have dropped to about $300 per pound in recent weeks, compared to as much as $800 per pound at the same time last year.
Jonathan Wentzel and Ingrid Tsong at their home in Healdsburg on Jan. 27, 2022. Wentzel and Tsong run Beija Flor Farms in Mendocino County. Photo by Paul Collins for CalMatters
The couple has already dipped into savings to stay afloat, Tsong said. Because cannabis is still illegal under federal law, they do not have access to bank loans or agricultural aid programs available to other farmers, leaving them without the capital they need to front the cost of production at the start of a new season.
While Beija Flor Farms, which harvests a piece of property that has been in Wentzel’s family through several generations of growing cannabis, is better positioned to survive than many small operations in the Emerald Triangle, the financial hit of sitting out a year is still difficult for Tsong to fathom. The couple has already pulled from their savings.
A decision looms, as Tsong and Wentzel will need to start preparing to put plants in the ground in May. Their calculation could change if the market turns around or the state takes quick action on relief for the cannabis industry — Tsong is hoping some of the state’s $21 billion discretionary surplus can go to a tax rebate for small farmers — but even a scaled-backed crop feels like a risk.
“It doesn’t seem smart to try again given the brick wall we’re facing,” Tsong said. “If we farm this year, it honestly might just be a labor of love.”
Industry seeks help from Sacramento
Three days after Newsom’s pronouncement about stabilizing the market, dozens of small growers from the Emerald Triangle, social equity license holders and other activists gathered on the steps of the Capitol to demand an end to what they deemed the “war on drugs 2.0.”
Johnny Casali brought a cannabis plant, from a strain named for his mother, from his Humboldt County farm and set it next to the podium as he railed against the overtaxation that he said was destroying the legal market. Dispensary owners, shut out of traditional banking, shared their struggles with frequent break-ins by thieves who know they have cash on hand.
Supporters of cannabis tax reform gather for a rally at the state Capitol on Jan. 13, 2021. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters
Attendees lingered after the speeches ended, enjoying a joint in the sun and waiting for a turn to talk to state Sen. Steven Bradford, who spoke at the event in solidarity.
As bill ideas circulate at the Capitol, lawmakers are poised to take up the cannabis industry’s cause this session. Bradford told CalMatters that, besides an overhaul of the tax structure, the Legislature could address prohibitive start-up costs for marijuana businesses, such as extensive environmental reviews or a requirement in many communities that dispensary owners have a storefront rented before they can even apply for a license to open.
“We’re, in essence, enabling the illegal market to continue right now,” the Gardena Democrat said. “That’s who’s winning this battle.”
What the industry really wants is broad tax relief. At the Capitol rally, farmers urged the state to eliminate the cultivation tax, which recently increased to more than $10 per ounce, or switch from a flat rate to a percentage of the price. Social equity license holders asked for a suspension of the 15 percent excise tax, to give their businesses a greater opportunity to establish a foothold.
“You give us this opportunity and then you let us swim with sharks, because you don’t provide any protections.”
Kika Keith, owner of Gorilla Rx Wellness, a dispensary in Los Angeles
Kika Keith, whose dispensary Gorilla Rx Wellness was one of the first licensed through Los Angeles’ social equity program, said campaign promises that Prop. 64 would provide redemption for communities hurt by the drug war proved to be a “Trojan horse.”
She slammed regulators for prioritizing bringing the existing cannabis market, which is predominantly controlled by white-owned businesses, into compliance. Assistance for entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds, including $55 million in grants from the state for social equity licensing programs, has been slow to reach those it was meant to help, she said.
“You give us this opportunity and then you let us swim with sharks, because you don’t provide any protections,” Keith said. “This is a state of emergency for Black and brown community members who have given up everything to be a part of this industry.”
Tough choices and trade-offs
It’s a complicated political puzzle for Newsom, who said at his budget press conference that he would “look at tax policy.” Any changes need to account for the impact on revenue, he said — an estimated $595 million in the 2022-23 budget to help fund child care slots, environmental cleanup programs and impaired driving prevention efforts.
The governor also said it’s “my goal to get these municipalities to wake up to the opportunities to get rid of the illegal market” and “to provide support and a regulatory framework for the legal market,” but did not offer any details. Tension over local control is a frequent issue at the Capitol, and there may be little appetite to dramatically curtail the rights of cities under Prop. 64.
Elliott, his top cannabis adviser, said the administration might be inclined to pursue changes that make it easier to comply with the legal cannabis system by addressing the “pain points” for operators, such as the fact that they must prepay some of their taxes on products they have not even sold. Newsom’s approach will depend on what proposals emerge from the Legislature, she said, because they will need to work together to reach the two-thirds vote threshold required of any tax measure.
“Everything’s a trade-off,” Elliott said. “It will be challenging to have anything but revenue neutrality because there are stakeholders who care about that revenue.”
Those include law enforcement organizations and unions that represent programs funded by the revenue. Public health groups also worry lowering the cost will encourage more marijuana use.
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University who served on the steering committee of Newsom’s blue ribbon commission, said the legalization framework of Prop. 64 was more corporate-friendly than the panel’s recommendations. He said the state should crack down on the illicit market by stepping up enforcement against unlicensed operators, rather than giving incentives to cannabis businesses.
“That’s more sensible than messing with taxes,” he said.
It’s a sensitive subject in an industry that is still grappling with the legacy and the trauma of the war on drugs. While some licensed growers and dispensary owners do believe the consequences are too low to discourage those operating illegally, others argue that large-scale enforcement would be fruitless against an illicit market that is so pervasive.
Steinmetz, whose Flow Cannabis Co. has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs over the past few years as it has struggled to compete, called it “a game of whack-a-mole.”
Law enforcement is unable to stay on top of illegal marijuana farms, especially on public lands, which steal precious water and raise the risk of devastating wildfires. Unlicensed dispensaries, even when they are shut down, often soon pop up in a new location.
Casali, whose family started growing cannabis in Humboldt County in the mid-1970s, was arrested on illegal cultivation charges in 1992 and served eight years in federal prison. Unlike many of his peers, he opted to apply for a license for his Huckleberry Hill Farms after Prop. 64 because he was tired of a life in the shadows, running from helicopters and special agents.
Now he worries that legalization also means the end for the small farmers like him who built California into a marijuana powerhouse.
“The people who created the system truly do not understand what we went through,” Casali said. “We’re the ones who helped create a multibillion-dollar industry and now you don’t want us.”
Sgt. Brendan "Jacy" Tatum walks into the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco.
The former head of the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department’s drug interdiction team pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of conspiracy to commit extortion under "color of law," falsifying records in a federal investigation and tax evasion.
Ex-Sgt. Brendan “Jacy” Tatum and his former partner, Joseph Huffaker, were both indicted by a federal grand jury in September for their role in an unlawful marijuana and asset seizure scheme uncovered by KQED in 2018.
Tatum stood straight-backed in a dark navy suit in the wood-paneled federal courtroom in San Francisco before Judge Maxine Chesney. She methodically went over the three counts of the indictment and then asked Tatum how he pleaded.
"Guilty, your honor," he said.
Tatum declined to publicly comment at Wednesday’s hearing. But about an hour after the court hearing, his lawyer, Stuart Hanlon, emailed KQED about Tatum’s plea.
"My client plead guilty to all charges he is facing because he is in fact guilty," Hanlon said. "He realizes he has made huge mistakes and that there will be serious consequences for him. He is ready to face these consequences. The first step is to admit what he has done."
The vandalized water source where most water thefts occur in Lancaster, on July 2, 2021. The water is pumped into large containers that are sold and bought on the sides of the road.
One day last spring, water pressurein pipelines suddenly crashed In the Antelope Valley, setting off alarms. Demand had inexplicably spiked, swelling to three and half times normal. Water mains broke open, and storage tanks were drawn down to dangerous levels.
The emergency was so dire in the water-stressed desert area of Hi Vista, between Los Angeles and Mojave, that county health officials considered ordering residents to boil their tap water before drinking it.
"We said, ‘Holy cow, what’s happening?’” said Anish Saraiya, public works deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
It took a while for officials to figure out where all that water was going: Water thieves — likely working for illicit marijuana operations — had pulled water from remote filling stations and tapped into fire hydrants, improperly shutting off valves and triggering a chain reaction that threatened the water supply of nearly 300homes.
As drought grips most of California, water thievery across the state has increased to record levels. Bandits in water trucks are backing up to rivers and lakes and pumping free water they sell on a burgeoning black market. Others, under cover of darkness, plug into city hydrants and top up. Thieves also steal water from homes, farms and private wells, and some even created an elaborate system of dams, reservoirs and pipelines during the last drought. Others are MacGyvering break-ins directly into pressurized water mains, a dangerous and destructive approach known as hot-tapping.
InMendocino County, the thefts from rivers and streams are compromising already depleted Russian River waterways. In one water district there, thefts from hydrants could compromise a limited water supply for fighting fires, which is why they have put locks on hydrants.
As a way of prioritizing Humboldt State University's push to become polytechnic, the university is expanding its curriculum to include more STEM-related degree programs as soon as fall of 2023.
“This is what a 21st-century education looks like: programs where students build the skills to have meaningful careers and a nuanced understanding of society’s complex issues so they can make the world a better place,” says Jenn Capps, HSU provost and vice president of academic affairs.
According to the release, HSU will formally submit proposals to California State University to add applied fire science and management, cannabis studies, data science, energy systems engineering, engineering and community practice, geospatial information science and technology, marine biology, mechanical engineering and software engineering for the 2023 fall semester. The programs, along with other applied and social sciences slated for 2026 and 2029, must be approved by the CSU's Chancellor's Office, the CSU Board of Trustees and receive accreditation from various organizations.
“These programs are a win for HSU and the greater north state,” says Mary Oling-Sisay, vice provost and dean of undergraduate and graduate studies. “They bring to life what we do and what we’re known for and will augment our current offerings in a very significant way.”
Read the full press release below.
HSU Continues Polytech Push with Plans for Several New Programs
Drawing on its strengths in STEM, environmental and social responsibility, and experiential learning, Humboldt State University has submitted documentation of its intent to launch several new and innovative undergraduate and graduate degree programs as soon as Fall 2022 and Fall 2023.
HSU will formally submit proposals for the following programs to the California State University for consideration: Applied Fire Science & Management, Cannabis Studies, Data Science, Energy Systems Engineering, Engineering & Community Practice, Geospatial Information Science & Technology, Marine Biology, Mechanical Engineering, and Software Engineering for Fall 2023. (See descriptions below.)
“This is what a 21st century education looks like: programs where students build the skills to have meaningful careers and a nuanced understanding of society’s complex issues so they can make the world a better place,” says Jenn Capps, provost and vice president of academic affairs.
The programs are among those prioritized through the collaborative polytechnic planning process on campus. The fast-track timeline is highly dependent on additional state funding that has been proposed by the Governor and is being considered by the Legislature.
These programs, in addition to those in applied and social sciences slated for 2026 and 2029, are pending the necessary approvals by the CSU Chancellor’s Office, CSU Board of Trustees, plus accreditation from various organizations.
The announcement comes as HSU explores becoming the third polytechnic university in the CSU and the only one in Northern California. The new programs align with the University’s vision of becoming a polytechnic that builds on a strong liberal arts foundation and long-standing commitment to sustainability and social justice; and infuses traditional ecological knowledge, renewable energy, and more.
A polytechnic status would have broad implications for the region and state. It would help revitalize the economy of the North Coast (where HSU is the largest employer), provide educational opportunities to students across the state, and help meet California’s workforce needs.
“These programs are a win for HSU and the greater north state,” says Mary Oling-Sisay, vice provost and dean of undergraduate and graduate studies. “They bring to life what we do and what we’re known for and will augment our current offerings in a very significant way.”
New HSU Degree Programs
Applied Fire Science & Management, Bachelor of Science, will develop the practical knowledge and skills to become fire science or management professionals. Created in collaboration with HSU’s respected Forestry & Wildland Resources and Native American Studies programs, the Applied Fire Science & Management major will also include a breadth of perspectives and knowledge systems (e.g., traditional ecological knowledge), with an emphasis on incorporating indigenous practices.
Cannabis Studies, Bachelor of Art, engages a curriculum that centers place with people, planet, and prosperity as related focal areas. These areas encompass environmental, life and physical sciences as well as geography; sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, politics, social work, Native American Studies, child development, kinesiology, and criminology and justice studies; and economics, business, and recreation management.
Data Science, Bachelor of Science, develops the skills to synthesize knowledge and apply contemporary statistics, data analysis, and computational science methods to solve social and environmental problems.
Energy Systems Engineering, Bachelor of Science, incorporates elements commonly included in Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, and Electrical engineering disciplines. It is designed to prepare students for careers in developing, designing, operating, and analyzing clean energy systems.
Geospatial Information Science & Technology, Bachelor of Science, prepares students for careers as Geographic Information System (GIS) analysts and specialists, remote sensing analysts, cartographers, photogrammetrists, and geographers.
Engineering & Community Practice, Master of Science, develops future engineering leaders who will sustain, restore, and protect our natural resources and the environment.
Marine Biology, Bachelor of Science, explores the diversity of marine life, its evolutionary history, the importance to our planet, and how it is impacted by human activities.
Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Science, explores a range of integrated engineering systems that include thermal and electromechanical elements.
Software Engineering, Bachelor of Science, applies engineering concepts to software development. It encompasses the development, operation, and maintenance of programs.
