The roles of insects in ecosystems are incredibly diverse, with species serving as herbivores, predators, pollinators, and they are essential for organic material cycling, and often used as indicators of habitat quality. Despite their species richness, recent reports have highlighted potentially catastrophic declines in the abundance and diversity of insects across multiple biogeographic regions.

This course provides students with an introduction to the discipline of landscape ecology, in both theory and practice, with specific applied examples related to the New England landscape. Landscape ecology focuses on the interplay between scale, spatial pattern, and ecological processes; specifically, how to characterize spatial pattern, where it comes from, why it matters, and how it changes through time and/or scale.

Introduction to the human dimension of resource management. Topics include social values, demographics, outdoor recreation, agency history and mandates, economic valuation, resource allocation, stakeholder groups, the commons dilemma, and other topics. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BS-NRC majors.

This course is designed for students to practice leadership skills needed while working in the natural resources conservation or environmental science profession. The purpose of this course is to integrate the social science, natural science, and communication skills obtained through coursework with social dynamics, conflict resolution, active listening, leading and implementing change and other leadership skills while working with diverse project teams on large complex environmental management projects/issues.

This is a project-based interdisciplinary course which will provide instruction and guidance to students as they gain practical experience using UASs in a variety of applications. Classroom instruction will cover: mission planning, data analysis, data visualization and UAS public policy in national and international contexts. Additionally, students will have lab instruction in which they process and analyze imagery and data acquired by UASs using combinations of different photogrammetry and GIS software packages.

The broad disciplines of natural resources conservation, ecology, and environmental science often require field work, whether it is in a forest around the corner or on a coastline on the other side of the globe. Early in their careers, students learn about experimental design, sampling protocols, and data analyses, however little formal training is provided about field logistics.

Over the past 20 years, Massachusetts has evolved as a leader in clean energy policy, which has led to market development, job and economic growth, and reductions in greenhouse gas and other emissions. This course will provide direct insights into the brief history of these policy developments, including policy objectives, legislative and regulatory roles, tradeoffs of costs and benefits, the use of analytical methods to establish program design, and stakeholder perspectives and engagement.

The goals of this course are to teach you basic GIS concepts such as spatial data sources and structures, projections and coordinate systems, geospatial analysis, cartographic modeling, and the integration of remote sensing and GIS. By the end of the course, students will be proficient in ESRI ArcGIS software.

Introduction to the principles of fish stock assessment, with emphasis on harvest modeling and forecasting techniques. Implications of overfishing and habitat degradation.