Masters Thesis

Rural resilience: local agriculture and adaptations to cycles of change in Hayfork, California

The interconnectedness of humans and nature exists within a social-ecological system, the resilience of which depends on the ability of humans and environment to respond and adapt to inevitable changes across scales. Rural communities are often natural resource-dependent, relying on extractive industries for livelihood. For the community of Hayfork, in Trinity County, California, agriculture has provided subsistence since European settlement, and still retains its function today, despite periodic boom-bust cycles. Using mixed qualitative methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with local land managers, the resilience of current agroecological practices was analyzed. Today, a trilogy of coexistent branches of agriculture has emerged – local food, forestry and Cannabis. The resilience of these agricultural types, along with a local propensity for collaborative planning and adaptive management, is strengthened by local knowledge and social capital. Local agriculture provides diversity of function within Hayfork and indicates an adaptive capacity for sustainability and transformation, yet an overreliance on Cannabis or scarce resources such as water, may threaten the community's resilience.

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