This Year's Catalog 2006-07

Undergraduate Studies

Evening and Weekend Studies

Evening and Weekend Class Listing

Summer Studies

Summer Class Listings

Graduate Studies

Graduate Electives

Master of Environmental Studies

Master of Public Administration

Master in Teaching

About Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies at Evergreen offers broadly interdisciplinary academic studies within and across three distinctive thematic areas. In any year, each of the three thematic areas will explore some of the specific topics listed in each category.

Human Communities and the Environment-addresses environmental policy, ethics and human relations with, and ways of thinking about, the natural world. It includes community studies, political economy, geography, environmental economics, environmental health, history and planning.
Natural History-focuses on observation, identification and interpretation of flora and fauna using scientific field methods as a primary approach to learning how the natural world works. It includes ecology, ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology, entomology, botany and mycology, with exploration of issues in biodiversity.
Environmental Sciences-deals primarily with the study of the underlying mechanisms and structures of natural systems, both living and nonliving. Environmental sciences often involve significant laboratory and field work. They include chemistry, biology, geology, hydrology, oceanography, climatology, physiological ecology, evolutionary biology, forest ecology, biogeochemistry and marine biology.

Each of these thematic areas will always be offered for students who wish to focus on a particular theme, although there will also be significant overlap. Programs will be interdisciplinary among themes, as well as within a particular theme. Students should also consider offerings in political economy, physical science and mathematics.
Please note that if you intend to pursue graduate studies in environmental studies or science, a minimum of one full year of undergraduate study in biology, chemistry and statistics is recommended. Some graduate programs also require physics. These subjects may also be prerequisites to some of the upper-division environmental studies programs. Students should also consider gaining research experience by participating in Advanced Research in Environmental Studies, this can serve as a capstone to their academic work in this planning unit.

To help you pick your programs, the descriptions on the following pages list the significant content and credits in each of the three thematic areas. Additionally, all Environmental Studies faculty can advise you on your choice of program. The Environmental Studies coordinator will also be aware of changes and additions to the catalog that occur because of the two-year lag between the creation of the catalog and the actual offerings.

It is important to realize that program titles and content change from year to year. Every year we offer one or two versions of Introduction to Environmental Studies intended for second-year and transfer students and open to well-prepared first-year students. Ecological Agriculture and Marine Life are offered on an alternate-year basis. Temperate Rainforests and Tropical Rainforests are offered on an alternate basis with programs focused on the Pacific Northwest. Programs focusing on human communities and environmental policy are also offered every year, although the program titles change. The Masters in Environmental Studies (MES) program shares faculty with the undergraduate curriculum, and frequently MES electives, which are taught in the evenings, allow advanced undergraduates to enroll.