Students will acquire the knowledge necessary to gain an understanding of forestry, forest stewardship, responsible citizenship, and employment opportunities in forestry. Students will also gain an understanding of current technology and socio-economic values associated with managed public and private forest and natural resources. Upon the completion of the course, students should be able to understand basic principles and methods used by foresters and be aware of forest and natural resource conditions and typical management recommendations for achieving various landowner and societal objectives. Students should be able to expand the application of sustainability principles to other natural resources and human-natural environment interactions.

One main outcome of the course is to engage students through written and oral assignments, structured and unstructured discussions, and lectures on forests and human use of the land. The activities noted below are designed to help students understand the role and place of humans in the broader landscape and to help them evaluate whether our use of resources is directed toward the greater common good (socially, environmentally, economically). Many human uses of land, forest, and natural resources are discussed, and ethical behavior of humans is intertwined with these subjects through the informal class discussions. Some lectures focus on environmental and business ethics with respect to human use of land and associated resources. These activities should foster an environment where the class can discuss human stereotypes and prejudices that exist in society today. They should help students understand why certain social systems interact with the environment in the manner that they do, which should contribute to a broader understanding of human use of the land and a reduction in stereotypes and prejudices. 
 
The objectives will be met through the following activities:

1) Class Assignments and Discussion Participation:  Once per week you will be given an assignment that involves a short, written summary of a forest and natural resource sustainability subject that pertains to current or previous lectures. These writing assignments will be graded and will contribute to your course grade as explained below. Unless indicated otherwise, these assignments will be due at the beginning of the next class meeting. The writing assignments will be variously structured to provide opportunities to address your thoughts to different audiences (academic, social, professional). We will spend some time at the beginning of a lecture period discussing your work on these assignments, so please come prepared to participate in class discussions. The discussion will involve considering the subject from environmental, economic, and social perspectives, and will prompt you to think about how your thoughts on a subject might interest different audiences (academic, social, professional). Instructors will provide advice and guidance on how to compose these writing assignments for both academic and professional audiences. Instructors will also provide advice and guidance on how these writing assignments can be adjusted to be more stylistically appropriate for the audiences for which they are developed. Through class discussions of these assignments, advice and guidance will be provided on interpersonal and oral presentation of ideas that is stylistically appropriate, mature, and consistent with professional and academic norms. We will encourage and facilitate discussion that fosters and engages opposing points of view. However, we will also provide advice and guidance on how these weekly assignments might be strengthened to support your point of view and foster a consistent purpose.

2) Reading and Synthesis Assignment: Around the middle of the term you will be assigned a paper to read concerning a current international forest and natural resource sustainability-related issue. The paper selected will have been peer-reviewed and published in a reputable forestry or natural resource journal. The paper will focus on the integration of forest natural resource concerns with social, economic, and environmental aspects of human use of the land. At the time of this assignment, and given the subjects covered previously during class lectures, you will be asked to assimilate and analyze the work and present in written form your impression of the scientific method and advances proposed. The advice and guidance provided for weekly assignments should be of benefit in prompting you to think about how your thoughts on the subject might interest different audiences (academic, social, professional), how your thoughts might be structured to be stylistically appropriate and mature, and how they can be structured to support your point of view on the paper. We will discuss and prepare you to analyze the arguments presented in the discussion section of the paper, where the advances made in the research are placed into a larger societal and research context. When the assignment is due, we will spend a portion of a discussion period discussing your various thoughts on the paper. As with class assignments, the discussion will involve thinking about the subject from environmental, economic, and social perspectives, and will prompt you to think about how the important messages in the paper might interest different audiences (academic, social, professional). These discussions should broaden your perspective of the subject, provide an avenue for intellectual discourse, and help you understand the different values people hold regarding forestry and the use of land. Through the written and oral portions of this assignment, you should gain insight into the inferences and subtleties each of the other students in the course gathered by reading and pondering the work.

3) Bonus Paper (optional):  Students who desire extra credit may select a news article that relates to an issue concerning forest and natural resources and write a short report summarizing it. The news article must have been published in a creditable newspaper or weekly magazine (print or online) during 2016 or later.  Press releases, opinion pieces, and articles in agency or activist organization magazines do not qualify.  We will be happy to review candidate articles if you send them to us or bring them to class.

Students will write a 1,000 word paper that first summarizes the news article and then give their opinion of the article and the issue described in the article. A copy of the news article must be submitted with the paper. Papers are to be typed in 11-point or larger font, single-spaced, with 1” margins throughout. Papers will be graded on how well each issue is summarized and critiqued (70% of credit) and on correct format, spelling, and grammar (30% of credit). Papers without the article attached (stapled) will not be accepted. Only printed versions are acceptable (paper is renewable and recyclable) as links and formatting are still often problematic with electronic submissions.

The potential value given to a bonus paper will decline as the semester progresses as follows:

Received By	Maximum Credit
Week 4	              5
Week 8	              4
Week 12	              3
After Week 8          0

4) Exams:  There will be 4 exams (multiple choice, true/false, matching, and short essay questions). Exams will be offered online. Exams will cover lecture material from class and assigned readings. Each exam is comprehensive, but will primarily focus on topics covered since the previous exam (except the final). Exams will intentionally include some questions about material covered only in lecture, discussions, and class videos, not just material from readings or the class slides, thus regular class attendance is highly recommended.

Some of these topics will be covered in more than one meeting period.

1. Introduction to the course
2. History of forestry, forests in the current world context
3. Forests of the world
4. Forest landowners
5. Forest landowners objectives and constraints
6. Forest products-commodities (lumber, paper, chemicals)
7. Forest products-non-timber (wildlife, biodiversity, aesthetics, water)
9. Forest recreation
10. Forest ecosystem services
11. Forest wildlife habitat development, manipulation, and models
12. Measuring forest conditions
13. Mapping, aerial photographs, satellite images
14. Lasers, LiDAR, GPS
15. Tree anatomy
16. Tree physiology
17. Forest dynamics-communities, competition, succession
18. Forestry practices
19. Forest harvesting systems
20. Forest economics
21. Forest disturbance and health
22. Forest policies and external pressures
23. Forest certification
24. Urban forestry
25. Forestry conservation and business ethics
26. Forestry careers