Ecolog:
I may be quite out of date here (I fervently hope so), but in the early days
(1970's and '80's?) when universities first started cranking out Ph.D's in
"environmental management" or some such label, I got the impression that
biology/ecology had created a population of monsters on the order of MBA's.
These were nice people, devoted to saving the earth. The trouble was, they
had such a poor (if any) understanding of biology/ecology fundamentals
(though I'm certain--though I never checked the curriculum--that they must
have passed basic courses) that one couldn't communicate with them about,
say, basic physiology, capillarity, or even habitat structure and species
interactions.
My sample size may be too small, but as I can't recall a single exception
(though that's probably due to my poor memory), it could be that my worst
fears had some validity. These nice folks had important jobs in the
consulting industry and in government, and had tremendous power, which they
wielded with absolute authority.
Please tell me that this is no longer the case, or that I was wrong, wrong,
wrong in my assessment and my experiences were all a bad dream.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "malcolm McCallum" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 7:36 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] academia vs consultancies vs govt - dual degree
programs
Arkansas State's Environmental Sciences PHD program was originally
designed
with the intention to train people for consultant and Govt jobs. I'm not
sure if it still has that focus or not because it has been well 6-7 years
since I looked at the program.
On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 9:41 PM, Nathan Brouwer <[email protected]>
wrote:
Regarding cross-training in ecology and policy, I know that the
University
of Washington school of forestry offers a dual masters degree in
conjunction
with the university's public policy school. Are these programs very
common,
though?
There have been several op-ed pieces in Conservation Biology over the
years
that have called for this type of training. eg
Training Idiot Savants: The Lack of Human Dimensions in Conservation
Biology Author(s): Susan K. Jacobson and Mallory D. McDuff 1998
Cannon, J. R., J. M. Dietz, and L. A. Dietz. 1996. Training conservation
biologists in human interaction skills. Conservation Bi-ology
10:1277-1282.
Jacobson, S. K. 1990. Graduate education in conservation biology.
Conservation Biol-ogy 4:431-440.
From: Lee Davis <[email protected]>
Date: March 6, 2011 7:47:35 AM PST
Subject: academia vs consultancies vs govt
Reply-To: Lee Davis <[email protected]>
I think a major point that isn't being addressed here is that many
professors who have focused solely on research and may have had little
contact with regulation, on the ground conservation and management
agencies/organizations often fail to understand the importance of
training
in NEPA, conservation easements, environmental economics, etc. as an
important and needed addition to training in research methods.
--
Malcolm L. McCallum
Managing Editor,
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
"Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" -
Allan
Nation
1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert
1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss,
and pollution.
2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction
MAY help restore populations.
2022: Soylent Green is People!
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