Hi. I'm Steve Herman, and l want to introduce you to some of the opportunities and advantages of studying natural history at Evergreen. Natural history is a kind of antiquated term that is often applied to something we recognize as "Nature Study". But at Evergreen we use the term in the description of courses and programs that teach "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments, that is, subjects like field botany, field ecology, mammalogy, ornithology, entomology, forestry, and wildlife and fisheries biology.

			These are all subjects that you will find listed in the catalogs of most colleges and universities, but these topics are available at Evergreen with a major advantage: field time. Because of Evergreen's unique curricular structure allowing students to enroll full time in a program, a program that incorporates a combination of disciplines taught in an integrated way, we are able to take students in the field for as long as we need to, not the couple of hours or single overnight per term common elsewhere.

For example, Dr. Al Wiedemann (a plant ecologist) and I (a vertebrate ecologist) have often taught a two quarter program called "Field Natural History". During the winter quarter a minimum of one day a week is spent in the field locally, and the quarter will end with a three day field trip in eastern Washington.

	Shorebirds at Bowerman Basin, 50 miles west of Olympia where sustained field work by Evergreen students has been vital in preserving critical flyway habitat.

The spring quarter typically includes a nine day trip that will take students and faculty to northwestern California to the redwood forests, and ends with a two week field trip through eastern Washington, southeastern Oregon, northwestern Nevada, and back to Olympia.

			Banding ravens

	Mist netting small birds Malheur Wildlife Sanctuary - Eastern Oregon		Program field trip camp

			Many of the offerings in natural history prepare students for graduate study, careers in resource management, and similar work, but they also serve the primary institutional goal, the goal of a liberal arts college: to prepare students for a richer life.

			Additional examples of faculty who teach "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments" include Dr. Jack Longino and Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, who teach programs called "Temperate Rainforests" and "Tropical Rainforests". The latter program includes several weeks in Costa Rica, and is just one of the many opportunities available for Evergreen students to study in the neotropics of Latin America.
	Pristine neo-tropical rain forest

Dr. Nadkarni makes a specialty of studying the forest canopy, one of the last frontiers of biology, and Dr. Longino is an entomologist and the world authority on the huge number of ant species found in Costa Rica.

	Nalini in the canopy - Monteverde Nature Reserve - base for Evergreen's Tropical Forests program

			Dr. Gabriel Tucker studies and teaches aspects of modern forestry, as well as related subjects, and spends much of his time in the field with students, conducting research and teaching.
	Bat cave field trip

			And Dr. Frederika Bowcutt teaches field botany in many innovative ways, including regular consideration of plant use by native peoples.
	Dr. Bowcutt (in hat) examines an ant colony.

			So if you're interested in learning about the inhabitants of natural landscapes, much of the time as an occupant of those landscapes, Evergreen is probably an excellent choice for you. Mike Neeley, who worked with me at Evergreen, talks about his experiences studying natural history here in an interview you can look at if you're interested - for further questions, feel free to contact me or one of the other faculty.

Chemistry | Computing | Geology | Lab Biology | Marine Science | Physics
|| Overview || Home || Alumni Interview ||