Natural Resources

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Fisheries

The Fisheries program is designed primarily to produce graduates who can assess, develop, and manage fish habitats, populations, and commercial and recreational fisheries. The program is broad enough to allow students to prepare themselves for work in additional areas such as water pollution ecology and fish culture.

Forestry

Graduate students in Forestry focus on a wide variety of topics including forest ecology, fire ecology and management, tree physiology, remote sensing and geographic information systems, silviculture, forest engineering, forest growth, and administration of forest land for ecosystem management.

Natural Resources Planning & Interpretation

NRPI graduate studies are oriented toward environmental analysis and land use planning, recreational uses of natural resources, interpretation of natural resources, and application of GIS technology.

Rangeland Resources & Wildland Soils

The fundamental aim of Rangeland Resources is to maintain rangeland health for sustainable production of forage for livestock and wildlife, watershed function, outdoor recreation,
and aesthetic values. Wildland Soils deals with the maintenance of the quality of the soil for those same values and sustainable timber production.

Wastewater Utilization

Wastewater Utilization explores the re-use of water from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural drainage ditches, and other sources traditionally considered unusable. This option provides training in design and evaluation of advanced biological wastewater treatment systems and in the design of systems that reuse wastewater in natural resource ecosystems.

Watershed Management

Graduate studies focus on watershed processes and interactions between geophysical, biological, and socioeconomic factors as expressed in bounded geographic regions or drainages at a variety of scales. The interplay between watershed processes and the management of other natural resources is integral to the program.

Wildlife

Wildlife focuses on the conservation, management, ecology, behavior, and habitat requirements of wildlife species. Research projects emphasize the application of science
to addressing issues in wildlife conservation and management.