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Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation
Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation | Courses
| Natural Resources Conservation
Faculty
225 Holdsworth Natural
Resources Center
Degree: Bachelor of
Science
Contact: Linda S. Fortin
Office: 225 Holdsworth
Phone: 545-2665
The Field
Wildlife and Fisheries
Conservation is a major branch of applied ecology that encompasses the
science and art of studying, managing, conserving, and protecting wild
animal populations and the ecosystems on which living things depend. Such
tasks demand people broadly trained in science, natural history, ecology,
and the social and policy sciences. For this reason, the degree requirements
in the program begin with traditional natural history, zoology, botany,
mathematics, and chemistry courses.
Building on these traditional foundations, study continues
with applied courses on the principles of resource management and sensitive
issues of public policy and social values.
Wildlife and fisheries conservation is both science
and art. In addition to academic training, it requires talent, personal
commitment, enthusiasm, and special skills.
Career Opportunities
Employment opportunities
depend upon the program option chosen, field or research experience, and
the cooperative education or internship opportunities pursued.
The Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation curricula provide
students with the strong basic training to go to graduate school to work
toward a Master of Science degree. A master's degree is needed to enter
the wildlife or fisheries professions as a scientist or natural resource
manager with state or federal natural resource agencies, including the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service,
the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, or the Bureau of Land
Management. A master's degree also provides the expertise necessary for
advancement within an agency to jobs that include more supervisory and
decision-making responsibility.
Many students seek a job upon receiving their bachelor's
degree to get some work experience before going to graduate school, while
others decide that graduate school may not fit their personal goals or
needs. Some bachelor's degree students start their careers with overseas
assignments in the Peace Corps. Others find jobs as technicians or field
assistants with environmental consulting firms, or with state or federal
agencies. The advantage of such jobs lies in the opportunity to spend
large amounts of time "in the field." For example, a technician may work
as field assistant to district fish or game biologists. Responsibilities
may include helping to analyze the condition of fish or wildlife populations,
or assisting in interviewing anglers or hunters to determine levels of
harvest that occur during hunting or fishing seasons. Graduates may also
take jobs as fishery observers on foreign commercial fishing vessels.
The National Marine Fisheries Service assigns these technicians to an
ocean fishing boat for about a month at a time to collect data on the
levels of catch of important commercial species, or on the numbers of
protected animals such as dolphins
that become trapped in fishing nets.
The Major
Students choose between
a track in wildlife conservation or
in fisheries conservation.
An essential part of a Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation
education involves practical field experience. The department provides
help in finding students suitable field research projects, summer jobs,
internships, or cooperative education positions with state and federal
agencies, and private conservation organizations to gain additional valuable
experience.
There are many opportunities for students to work as
field assistants on departmental research projects, such as studies on
bears, trout, acid rain, coastal shorebirds, endangered species, white-tailed
deer, and estuarine fish. Through these activities, students have use
of such field laboratories as the nearby Connecticut River, the vast water
and land complex of the Quabbin Reservoir, the forested lands of western
Massachusetts, the estuaries and beaches of the Atlantic coast, and over
2,000 acres of University forests and waters.
There are numerous summer job and field research opportunities
with agencies and conservation organizations. The University's Cooperative
Education and Internship programs, and contacts made by individual faculty,
provide a wide array of opportunities, including: participating in programs
studying the fish and wildlife resources of Alaska's north slope, restoring
bald eagle and osprey populations, monitoring salmonid populations in
acidified streams of the northeast, or working as assistants on federal
wildlife refuges, at federal or state fish hatcheries, or on research
projects at national parks or other public lands throughout the U.S. Students
can also choose to complete some major requirements earning credit at
other universities in the U.S. or abroad in places such as Africa and
Australia.
Major Requirements
Freshman
BIOL 102 and BIOL 103 Introductory Animal and Plant Biology
MATH 104 or equivalent
NRC 100 Environment and Society
NRC 150 Applied Ecology
NRC 191 Introduction to Natural Resources Professions
RES EC 211 Introductory Statistics
for the Life Sciences
Sophomore
BIOL 283 General Genetics
CHEM 111 and 112 General Chemistry
Math elective-MATH 127, STAT 501 or BIOEPI 540
NRC 290A Animal Sampling Identification
NRC 290E Applied Ecology II
NRC 290P Plant Sampling and Identification
NRC 290S Introduction to Spatial Information Technologies
W&FCON 260 Fisheries Conservation and Management
W&FCON 261 Wildlife Conservation and Management
Junior
Public Speaking elective-FOREST 492A or COMM 260
NRC 390A Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management
NRC 397A Professional Writing
NRC 409 Natural Resources Policy and Administration
RES EC 263 Natural Resource Economics
Senior
Physical Science elective-PHYSIC 139 or CHEM 250
NRC 597 Ecosystem Management
Track Requirements
Fisheries Track
Aquatic Science elective-BIOL 534, BIOL 535 or
GEO 103
BIOL 542 Ichthyology
Earth Science elective-GEO 101 and 131 or GEO
105
Invertebrate elective-ENT 576 or BIOL 530
W&FCON 470 Fish Ecology
W&FCON 571 Fisheries Science and Management
Wildlife Track
Two 500-level Biology courses which must include either
BIOL 544 or BIOL 548; if only one of the preceding is chosen, the other
can be selected from among BIOL 521,
522, 528, 540, 550 or 567.
Earth Science elective-GEO 101 and 131, GEO 103 or
GEO 105
FOREST 334 Forest Measurements
W&FCON 564 Wildlife Habitat Management
W&FCON 565 Dynamics and Management of Animal Populations
The Minor
The minor is designed to
introduce students from a variety of other disciplines to the information
essential for wise stewardship of fish and wildlife resources. This background
may aid students in making career choices and in broadening their options
with regard to graduate school and future employment. A total of 15 credits
is required.
I. Take both of the
following:
261 Wildlife Conservation
260 Fisheries Conservation
II. Choose three classes out of the following groups, but no more than two in any single
group:
A. Wildlife Conservation
563 Wetland Wildlife
Ecology and Management
564 Forest Wildlife Ecology and Management
B. Fisheries Conservation
470 Ecology of Fish
597 Anadromous Fishes
C. Population and Habitat Assessment
396 Independent Study
565 Dynamics and Management of Animal Populations
571 Fisheries Science and Management
577 Ecosystem Modeling and Simulation
587 Introduction to Digital Remote Sensing
592G GIS in Fish and Wildlife
D. Natural Resource
Policy/Economics/Human Dimensions
NAREST 205 Introduction to Outdoor Recreation
NRC 390A Human Dimensions of Natural
Resources
NRC 409 Natural Resources Policy and Administration
ECON 308 Political Economy of the Environment
ENT 342 Pesticides, the Environment, and Public Policy
ENVSCI 213 Principles of Environmental Policy
GEO 362 Land Use and Society
RES EC 262 Environmental Economics
RES EC 263 Natural Resource
Economics
POLSCI 382 Environmental
Policy
Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation
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Resources Conservation Faculty
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