What is Resource Conservation?

The challenging and rapidly evolving field of environmental conservation requires broad training and the ability to integrate and communicate across disciplines.   Resource Conservation is an interdepartmental undergraduate major that prepares students for the diverse opportunities that now exist in environmental conservation, natural resource management and efforts to build sustainable livelihoods and communities.

Conservation is fundamentally a social enterprise that requires knowledge and skill in the natural and social sciences. Resource Conservation students are able to specialize in a specific area of interest while also gaining the knowledge necessary to integrate and communicate across disciplines. Students can choose a more structured program to prepare for graduate work in the natural sciences, such as the ecology, hydrology, or soils advising tracks, or emphasize emerging sub-disciplines such as fire ecology and management, and environmental social sciences. Students can also integrate across disciplines and focus on natural resource policy, wilderness studies, community forestry, or international conservation.