CALIFORNIA — Reflecting on her time with the Forest Service, ‘grateful’ is the first word that comes to mind for Cristina Winters. For the past seven months, Winters served as a climate change resource assistant for the Pacific Southwest Research Station. In that role, she took on various projects, making significant contributions during her short tenure.

“I feel lucky for the opportunities I had and getting to work with caring mentors like research supervisor Chrissy Howell, who supported and believed in me,” Winters said.

Winters is leaving PSW to attend a graduate program at Oregon State University in sustainable forest management. A focus of her program will be studying pyrogenic carbon or carbon that remains in a forest after a fire. She feels humbled by this opportunity to pursue her graduate degree.

“Five years ago, I never would have imagined going to graduate school. Initially, I never even thought college was an option,” Winters said.

In her early and mid-20s, Winters explored seasonal work, where she got her introduction to the Forest Service. One of her first experiences was working as an AmeriCorps forestry technician for Southern California’s San Bernardino National Forest. At the time, she describes knowing little about forestry, but loving the outdoor work. That experience was so enjoyable for her that she later pursued wildfire training at Los Padres National Forest.

But she didn’t limit her seasonal stints to the Forest Service. She also worked for the National Park Service at Wind Cave in South Dakota, and California State Parks at Del Norte Coast Redwoods.

“At Del Norte, I literally spent my days digging ditches, looking up at towering redwoods. I loved every minute of it!” Winters said.

With each position, Winters began forging a vision of what she could see herself doing. At one point, she worked as an EMT for 48-hour shifts during the weekends in California’s Trinity County. Despite the grueling schedule, she had the benefit of having her weekdays free to pursue what she wanted. That’s when she considered going to college.

During college, Winters got her first introduction to the Forest Service Research and Development program. She worked as a research ecologist for the Pacific Northwest Research Station, assisting graduate students and studying how prescribed fire affects old-growth pines in the Teakettle Experimental Forest outside of Fresno in the Sierra National Forest.

At PSW, she assisted Frank Lake with a project on managing forests, based on traditional tribal knowledge in the Yurok Tribe’s territory in northwest California. One of the project’s goals is making these forests more resilient and healthier in the face of unprecedented climate change through cultural burning and other Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Winters felt an especially meaningful connection to this research, as she formerly participated in the Indian Natural Resources, Science and Engineering Program at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Along with this research, Winters worked with natural resources specialist Eric Walsh in the Pacific Southwest Region, tracking and entering data on carbon stocks or the amount of carbon stored in a forest ecosystem.

Looking back at this project and others, Winters is thankful for her experiences at PSW.

“Staff at PSW not only inspired my career, but made me feel respected for who I am. I got to work with world-class scientists, who are also kind. I won’t forget you,” Winters said.