Natural History Field Studies

NATH8265E, 3 CEUs
Class night and time: Mondays, 6-8 pm
Class meetings: September 9-November 18 (No class November 11)
Lectures online via Zoom
Field trip dates: Saturday, September 21, 9:30 am-12 pm (Huntley Meadows); Saturday, October 12, 9:30 am-12:30 pm (Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens); Saturday, October 19, 9:30 am-2 pm (Occoquan Bay and Mason Neck NWR)
Instructor: Sally Valdes
Members $390; nonmembers $440
Gain an understanding of wildlife research methods, basics of life history, identification, population, community, and ecosystem ecology, management, and animal behavior. Find out how institutional missions and federal laws influence wildlife and habitat conservation, and how humans affect and are affected by wildlife in rural, suburban, and urban environments of the Mid-Atlantic region. Learn about the various threats faced by wildlife including invasive species, climate change, and the loss and degradation of habitats and the actions that individuals and communities can take to benefit wildlife. REGISTER

Required books: None
Recommended:
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Mid-Atlantic—it has the advantage of including a variety of fauna and flora in one guide.
Wildlife of the Mid-Atlantic by John Rappole—includes all terrestrial vertebrate species.

NATH8319E, 1.5 CEUs
Class night and time: Tuesdays, 6-8 pm
Class meetings: September 17-October 15
Lectures via Zoom
Field trip dates: Saturday, September 28, 9 am-12 pm (Theodore Roosevelt Island); Saturday, October 5, 9 am-12 pm (Patapsco Valley State Park). Times may shift forward or back a half an hour to accommodate weather and park traffic.
Instructor: Paula Becker
Members $210; nonmembers $260
What IS the definition of “invasive” and why should we care? Consequences of invasive plants in mid-Atlantic natural areas may be medical, ecological, environmental, or economic. This course will explore the historical and ongoing arrival of invasives, look at their cultural, legal, and ecological significance, and focus time on identification of major species of concern in the mid-Atlantic and possible control measures. And we’ll look at how our choices have far-reaching effects. Two field trips to local parks will reinforce identification skills and emphasize current management issues. REGISTER

Required books:
Mistaken Identity: Invasive Plants and Their Native Lookalikes by Matthew Sarver: https://sarverecological.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mistaken_identity.pdf
Recommended:
Invasive Plants: A Guide to Identification, Impacts, and Control of Common North American Species. Author(s): Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman and Wallace Kaufman Publisher: Stackpole Books ISBN: 0811733653

NATH8252, 3 CEUs
Class night and time: Wednesdays, 1-3 pm
Class meetings: September 18-December 4 (no class October 9, November 27)
Lectures via Zoom; 11/20 and 12/4 hybrid with in-person option at Woodend
Field trip dates: Sunday, October 6; Sunday, October 27; Sunday, November 17 (all start 10 am)
Instructor: Eliza Cava
Members $390; nonmembers $440
This course examines the development of natural resources conservation and preservation thought and policy in the United States from the pre-colonial era through the early twenty-first century. The class considers how land and natural resources have been fundamental agents in shaping the lives of the country’s inhabitants and, in parallel, how Americans’ perceptions of the environment and its resources have shaped the natural world. Some of the topics studied include varying cultural views of nature and wilderness; U.S. land dispersal policies; the creation of National Parks, Forests, and Wildlife Refuges; principal conservation policies from 1900-1964; the environmental and ecology movements from 1960-2000s; and the intersection of conservation with the climate and environmental justice movements of the 1990s-2020s. Students will learn about famous conservation “heroes” as both professionals and people, whose complicated, and often racist, views shaped patterns and divisions in the early conservation movements that continue to echo today. Students will explore the historical origins and development of a conservation topic of great interest to them with a written paper and class presentation. Field trips will visit sites of local conservation initiatives from different eras. REGISTER

Required books: 

Down To Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (3^rd or 4^th editions)
Author: Ted Steinberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-979739-4 or 978-0-1908644-2

Preserving the Nation: The Conservation and Environmental Movements, 1870-2000
Author: Thomas R. Wellock
Publisher: Harlan Davidson, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-88295-254-3

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
Author: Aldo Leopold
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0-19-5-5305-2

Silent Spring
Author: Rachel Carson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co
ISBN: 0-618-25305-x

Recommended: 

The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection
Author: Dorcetta Taylor
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822361817

Braiding Sweetgrass
Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Publisher: Milkweed Editions