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| The Department of Natural Resource
Sciences (NRS) is an academic unit within the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences
(CAHNRS) at WSU, and as such fully embraces
the tripartite land grant university mission of teaching,
research and extension/outreach programs designed to meet
the needs of our state's and nation's citizens. The Department
offers such programs not only in the traditional natural resource
fields of forestry and wildlife biology/management but also in a number of
other related fields both of long-standing and emerging importance
(e.g., conservation biology, ecological restoration, watershed
management, aquatic ecosystem management). |
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Faculty
Members in the
Department
of Natural Resource Sciences |
CAHNRS is the largest college at WSU, and includes several other departments having faculty and offering courses relevant to natural resource sciences (including Soil Sciences, Agricultural Economics, Plant Pathology, Entomology, Landscape Architecture, BioSystems Engineering, Rural Sociology and Animal Sciences). The Department of Natural Resource Sciences cooperates closely with these and other departments in other WSU colleges (most notably Environmental Science/Regional Planning, and Biological Sciences) in developing/offering teaching, research and outreach programs.
Natural Resource Sciences is a moderate-sized department at WSU, with 20 permanent and 22 adjunct (courtesy) faculty supported by 12 technical/clerical staff members. As described more completely in the faculty profiles provided elsewhere on this website, our permanent faculty are disciplinarily diverse and include individuals with primary expertise in forestry/forest sciences, wildlife sciences, range management sciences, watershed/aquatic ecology, natural resource economics and natural resource social science. Over the past five years, undergraduate and graduate student enrollments in NRS have averaged approximately 200 and 25 students, respectively. While the Department is headquartered at WSU's main (Pullman) campus, we are also represented via adjunct faculty and/or courses/curricula at each of WSU's three branch campuses (including availability of a NRS undergraduate major at the Vancouver branch campus). The Department has research/extension faculty stationed at an additional three off-campus sites (the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington, and the Department's Colockum Multiple Use Unit), and one faculty member is on international assignment in Africa. Departmental faculty are augmented by 7 statewide natural resource faculty within the WSU Cooperative Extension system.
As described in detail elsewhere on this website, the Department's programs are supported by an array of facilities, including offices, teaching and research labs in Johnson Hall on the Pullman campus; the Wildlife Habitat/Nutrition Laboratory; field, greenhouse, animal holding and laboratory facilities (including the Small Mammal Research Facility) of the E.H. Steffen Center immediately proximal to the main campus; the Bear Research, Education and Conservation facility adjacent to the main campus; the Kramer-Palouse Natural area just south of Pullman; and the Department's 11,300 acre Colockum Multiple Use Unit south of Wenatchee, Washington. For more information on these facilities go to the 'Research' option in the menu to the left.
Through its adjunct faculty and other cooperative agreements, the Department maintains an outstanding network of collaborations in teaching, research and extension/outreach programs with a wide array of other regional universities (most notably University of Idaho and University of Washington), several state and federal agencies, and private/public sector organizations. Particularly important formal cooperative agreements have been forged with the University of Idaho (College of Natural Resources), University of Washington (College of Forest Resources), US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, US Natural Resource Conservation Service, Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units. These and other modes of inter-institutional collaboration have proved very important in the pursuit and enrichment of teaching, research and extension programs of mutual interest.
The broad mission of the Department of Natural Resource Sciences is to advance and impart knowledge of ecosystems and natural resources, including their attributes and functions; their ecological and societal values; and their management in an ecologically, socially and economically sound, sustainable manner. This mission is pursued through teaching, research and extension programs of its faculty and cooperators that are described in considerable detail elsewhere on this website. The foundational principle of all programs, and hence of the Department, is that natural resource issues are inherently complex and consequently require educational or research programs that are appropriately integrated among relevant biological, physical, ecological and sociologic fields of science. Our commitment to this principle is reflected in the disciplinary and philosophic diversity of our faculty and programs, and in our willingness to engage in meaningful collaboration with other organizations in interdisciplinary work.
The Department of Natural Resource Sciences is also dedicated to a positive learning and working environment. We value and are sensitive to human diversity in the broadest sense, and promote a learning/working climate that fosters understanding and respect for such diversity.
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