Environmental Studies

The Environmental Studies (ES) planning unit offers broadly interdisciplinary academic studies within and across three distinctive thematic areas, Human Communities and the Environment, Natural History and Environmental Sciences. Programs emphasize interdisciplinary, experiential study and research primarily in the Pacific Northwest with additional work in other areas of the North and South America. Unit faculty members support sustainability and justice studies across the entire campus curriculum. Research methods and analysis emphasize field observation, quantitative and qualitative methods, and Geographic Information Systems. In any year, each thematic area explores a set of topics listed here:

• 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, ecological agriculture, environmental communication, environmental economics, environmental health, environmental history, environmental law and policy, geography, land-use planning and policy, and political economy.
• 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 botany, ecology, entomology, herpetology, invertebrate zoology, mammalogy, mycology, ornithology, and exploration of issues in biodiversity and global climate change.
• Environmental Sciences—Investigates 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 biogeochemistry, biology, chemistry, climatology, ecology, evolutionary biology, forest ecology, geology, hydrology, environmental analysis, marine biology, oceanography, and issues of global climate change.

Environmental studies students will find the frequency of topics offered, prerequisites for study, breadth of liberal arts education, and graduate school admissions requirements described in individual programs. Most freshmen should consider core programs that include topics in environmental studies. Further study may depend on having basic prerequisites; carefully read the catalog and talk to faculty to ensure that you are prepared for the program.

Specific topics recur in the curriculum either as a component of an interdisciplinary program or in-depth in an advanced, focused program. Some faculty teach similar topics each year as part of programs that have widely differing accompanying topics. Environmental Studies has repeating programs that are offered every year or every other year; note that because our faculty have multiple areas of expertise, the program titles, mix of faculty, and exact topics may vary from year to year in repeating programs. Ecological Agriculture is taught every other year and Practice of Sustainable Agriculture yearly. Other repeating programs include Animal Behavior, Hydrology, Marine Life, Plant Ecology and Taxonomy; Temperate Rainforests and Tropical Rainforests offered on an alternate-year schedule. Programs focusing on human communities and environmental policy are also offered every year, although the program titles change. Environmental Studies also provides one-of-a-kind programs created in response to a unique combination of interests, events and significant environmental concerns.

It is highly recommended that students who intend to pursue upper division and graduate studies in environmental studies or science take a minimum of one full year of undergraduate study in biology, chemistry and statistics. Students may also consider gaining research experience by participating in the Advanced Research in Environmental Studies program.

To help you choose your programs, the descriptions on the following pages list the significant content in each of the three thematic areas. Students should feel free to call or e-mail faculty whose interests overlap their own to seek advice.

The Evergreen State College offers a Master of Environmental Studies (MES) degree that integrates the study of the biological, physical, and social sciences. Faculty who teach MES electives, which are taught in the evenings, may allow advanced undergraduates to enroll with permission. For information on admissions requirements and procedures, please visit www.evergreen.edu/mes.