Supporting the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment allows us to continue on towards our purpose. Your donations will be used to strategically bridge, enrich, and especially to maintain our capacity to do the science that makes our brand of conservation for co-existence possible. We maintain a lot of environmental field sampling and laboratory equipment: from boats and trucks to telemetry receivers and even drones, to gas chromatographs and discrete wet analyzers: NRE is equipped to get the job done- and with your help we can stay that way.
Our department vision is a sustainable future for all living things; informed by applications of our scientific research, managed wisely by the educational foundation provided to students, and inspired through public engagement with our extension programming.
The mission of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment is to provide high-quality undergraduate and graduate education, to generate new knowledge by conducting research, and to provide extension and outreach programs in the field of natural resources and associated environmental sciences.
Our research enterprise mobilizes science across the spectrum of basic to applied inquiry, drawing from social and biophysical disciplines to inform natural resources conservation, environmental quality protection, and to sustain critical ecosystem services within complex social-environmental systems. Research foci within the Department are clustered around water resources and wetlands, forestry and forested landscapes, fisheries and wildlife conservation, and remote sensing of the environment. The Department places distinct emphasis on the challenges associated with expanding exurban landscapes and the associated interfaces between rural and urban environments. We don’t stop there. Our research spans the globe and presents conservation for co-existence as a guiding force to steer our planet towards a sustainable future.
In the classroom we prepare students for careers and leadership in state and federal natural resources and environmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, land trusts, and environmental consulting firms. We instill the skills that form the foundation of scientific inquiry, including the ability to collect environmental data outdoors, geo-reference sampling locations, on through analysis and interpretation with a focus on generating actionable recommendations for conservation, management, protection, and restoration.
Our Extension programming translates our environmental expertise into engagement with the public to benefit their lives at the places they live and work. These programs target home and land-owners, municipal officials, as well as teens and adults wanting to contribute to place-based environmental action in their communities.
