Natural Resource Studies

Natural Resource Studies | Courses | Natural Resources Conservation Faculty

225 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center

Degree: Bachelor of Science

Contact: David K. Loomis

Office: 311 Holdsworth

Phone: 545-6641

E-mail: loomis@forwild.umass.edu

Web site: www.umass.edu/ug_catalog/natrescon/natres.html

The Field

The profession of natural resource management is in need of people who are educated to provide a variety of skills that can be used to solve a growing list of problems and issues. Many of those problems are addressed by pre-professional and professional programs offered in this Department and others in the College of Food and Natural Resources. However, other problems require professional ability to integrate science, technical management, and social organization in effective programs and actions. Such problems include, for example, planning and managing coastal zone, rural areas, wetlands, and other water resources.

Conserving and managing resources is an interdisciplinary effort; thus, individuals with differing strengths may develop course specialties in environmental fields such as aquatic resources, ecology, human dimensions, natural areas management, and impact assessment. Further, these fields and others may be approached with an emphasis in science, technical management, administration, social policy and action, law, and communications. Individual curriculum planning based on personal career goals, talent, and interest is a special characteristic of the NAREST program.

Students who wish to prepare for entry to graduate school from this curriculum should make the decision early and work closely with their adviser. Specifically, students should identify their professional goal and determine requirements for entry into a specific graduate program. Students must define their own objectives. Some potential graduate programs for which this major is an effective base are: regional planning, law, conservation education, journalism, resource planning, and public administration.

The Major

The NAREST major offers a pre-professional program for students who have specific career goals not met by other natural resource or environmental majors, and who are ready to take personal responsibility for developing their own course of study. The program offers curriculum opportunities for students interested in generalist approaches to resource conservation and management, as well as opportunities for unique, focused, and specialized curriculum plans. Students may, in consultation with their adviser, plan to enter certain pre-professional specialties or prepare for graduate school.

Requirements

Freshmen

NRC 150 Fundamentals of Applied Ecology I

POLSCI 101 American Politics

NRC 100 Environment and Society

NRC 191 Introduction to Natural Resources Professions

BIOL 100 and 101 Introduction to Biology

MATH 104 Algebra, Analytic Geometry and Trigonometry

ANTH 208 Human Ecology

Sophomores

NRC 290A Animal Sampling and Identification

NRC 290E Applied Ecology II

NRC 290P Plant Sampling and Identification

CHEM 111 General Chemistry

CHEM 112 General Chemistry or PHYSIC 139 Introduction to Physics

GEO 101 The Earth and 131 Experiencing Geology

RES EC 211 Introductory Statistics for the Life Sciences

RES EC 263 Natural Resource Economics

NAREST 391A Seminar: Curriculum Planning

NRC 290S Introduction to Spatial Information Technologies

Juniors and Seniors

Requirements are met by individualized, student-designed curricula with adviser approval. All majors must take NRC 409 Natural Resources Policy and Administration, NRC 390A Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management, and NRC 549 Ecosystem Management, and fulfill the Junior Year Writing requirement.

Restrictions

Courses to be counted in the NAREST program must be taken on a graded basis.

Natural Resource Studies | Courses | Natural Resources Conservation Faculty