The Field Ecology Certificate program provides the training and education necessary to succeed in government agencies, private businesses, and non-profits that provide field ecology services. The certificate provides the opportunity to learn ecological field methods including identification of flora and fauna, quantitative assessment methods, wetland delineations, regulatory processes, restoration ecology, and geographic information systems. In addition to field methods, students will receive education in general ecological principles.

Two pathways to obtain the certificate exist for this program (students will choose only one of these pathways). Both pathways require the same core courses and only vary in their elective components. Pathway 1 is oriented toward students pursuing their Associate in Science degree in Biology and allows use of either BIOL 412 (Plant Biology) or BIOL 422 (Animal Biology) to partially meet unit requirements for elective courses in the program. Pathway 2 is oriented toward students not pursuing their Biology degree; and unit requirements for elective courses are entirely obtained from the list of elective courses in the program.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this program, the student will be able to:

✔ describe the basic principles of ecology, particularly in the context of field oriented biology.

✔ identify flora and fauna of the region.

✔ assess ecosystem evaluation methods and demonstrate competence in ecosystem analysis methodologies.

✔ examine the regulatory processes and agencies involved with environmental regulations at the local, state, and federal levels.

✔ apply the evolutionary process to its role in ecosystems.

✔ collect biological and ecological data during field work opportunities.

✔ record data in a field notebook and on data sheets.

✔ operate equipment used for the field work component of the program (e.g. nets and other collecting equipment for fishery surveys, nets and sorting trays associated with benthic macro invertebrate surveys for rapid bioassessment, and soil extraction tools for assessment of wetland hydric soils.)

✔ analyze data collected during field experiments and investigations (e.g. fishery data collected from captured species, percentages of cover of native and non-native plant species from an experimental vegetation plot, determination of water quality characteristics based on sensitivities of benthic macro invertebrate taxonomic units).

✔ formulate strategies and methodologies for data collection in various field situations.