Natural Resource Conservation and Management
Learn to work in a multifaceted management environment that integrates the ecological, social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of natural resources management.
Graduates of the program will be able to:
- Provide leadership to communities as they adapt to changing economic conditions while maintaining ecological integrity
- Implement best practices in strategic planning, development of organizational missions and design and implementation of evaluation/monitoring programs
- Apply principles of sustainability to solve problems across political boundaries
- Identify opportunities for collaboration and public participation around resource-based issues
- Create and maintain effective working partnerships under a range of socio-economic conditions
Key Facts
As a freshman you will have a variety of courses directly related to your major. In your first semester you’ll learn about the management of the Adirondack Park (the largest park in the continental U.S.); meet with natural resource professionals from forest rangers to climate change specialists; become acquainted with the ecology of the region; learn to identify plants and animals; navigate in the forest and understand the complex and unique ecosystems that make up the Adirondacks. In short, you’ll learn by getting your boots muddy and your paddle wet!
As a senior you will complete a Capstone Course. Some Capstone Research Projects students have presented:
- White-tailed Deer Browse Preference: A Comparative Study of the Catskill and Adirondack Mountain Regions, New York State
- Alpine Ecosystems on Ski Area Summits in the Northeast: A Best Management Practices Manual
- Designing a Multiple-Use Winter Recreation Trail System at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center
- Monitoring the Zebra Mussel Invasion Front: Use of New Technology
- Reintroduction Feasibility of the Adirondack Wolf
Career Options
- Conservation Officer
- Environmental Technician
- Naturalist
- Environmental Law
- Community Planning
- Resource Policy Analyst
- Natural Resource Manager
Courses & Objectives
At the end of the program students will be able to:
- Explain the historical role and value of science in policy formation designed to protect, maintain, and restore natural and human altered environments.
- Articulate the differences between inductive and deductive methods of scientific inquiry as each pertain to gaining reliable knowledge.
- Teach students to articulate complex scientific and social issues into a language which is useful and meaningful to the general public.
- Explain the implications of the relationship of cumulative environmental impacts on the resilience of ecosystems, biomes and the biosphere.
- Apply basic principles of sustainability to problem solving across political boundaries.
- Delineate the management environment in ecological, economic, political, and socio-cultural terms.
- Define the cyclic management process as related to an organization’s mission statement, strategic planning, assessment, implementation, and evaluation/monitoring program.
- Articulate the appropriateness of sustainable management models or approaches used to address resource management issues.
- Demonstrate basic knowledge of management and communication needed to work effectively with stakeholders in integrated natural resource management teams.
- Articulate the role of the political process in affecting change in policy and regulations at local, state, national and international scales.
- Develop evaluation and monitoring techniques which facilitate social and economic tenets in the management process.
- Identify opportunities for collaboration and public participation around resource-based issues and define steps to create and maintain effective collaborations under a range of social-economic conditions.
- Apply adaptive management approaches to increase the capacity of human communities to change with economic conditions while maintaining ecological integrity.
Sample courses:
- Intro to Environment and Society
- Conservation Law Enforcement
- Dendrology
- Conservation Biology
- Natural Resources Economics
- Sustainable Development
- Environmental Impact
- Ecology
- Watershed Management
More program information and a full course list can be found in the College Catalog. For program planning sheets, click here.
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Paul Smith's receives four Best Colleges distinctions, including the No. 3 ranking for Most Innovative Schools. Continue reading »
A LIFE IN CONSERVATION
“Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Nate Favreau knows Paul Smith’s College. From 2005 – 2006, he worked in the forestry tool room on campus and at the sugar bush…” »