A unit of Lasting Forests
Sustained forests; sustained profits
evolving since March 30, 1999
A unit of Lasting Forests |
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Dear Student:
I look forward to the semester together. I welcome the chance to share my love of the wildlife or wild faunal resource and its management with you. I hope you will ask questions when we are in class together, and if there is not ample time there, I hope that you will correspond with me by Email, on the phone, or even visit me at my home (504 Rose Avenue, Blacksburg, 24060).
This is an advanced professional course. We need to attempt to be synthetic. Experience has shown the need for repetition and review before synthesis. It is essential that you "refresh your learning curves" for many topics; I cannot re-teach all of the topics that we must use to do superior wildlife management. Not just for synthesis, the course is designed to be very managerial, to put past knowledge gains into practice. It also is designed to show you an alternative perspective of some topics. Within out field, all professors do not agree on "principles"; there are many debated theories, premises, and even disagreements about entire paradigms. I want you to see my paradigm. I have spent a lifetime testing and improving it and I intend to continue. You will not see it in its entirety in a semester, so I merely insist that you know it well so that you can judge its suitability for you; contrast and compare it to others in later life; decide where it needs to be changed to meet future conditions; or learn how to explain and defend a rational alternative. I do not take learning my paradigm as a trivial exercise; I do not say it is perfect. You need to see it totally. There is insufficient time for a comparison of paradigms or total approaches to animals or their management. There is insufficient material (e.g., as in "comparative religions" or even "comparative anatomy") to allow comparative work to be done. I shall comment on some conspicuous alternatives, but I press ahead to provide you with at least one whole picture of our field ... one perspective. Later, in agencies, conferences, schools, etc. you can observe others and adjust or perhaps construct a unique view of this part of the world process.
I want to use the labors of your past-- to answer questions, see where things that you have learned "fit", solve problems, and to make decisions -- the very subject matter of modern wildlife resource management. By the end of the course you should be able to
The course is new; the technology of its presentation is new; the subject matter (at least its formulation) is new. I hope that you will find it exciting. It all requires a new and different approach to study for a college course that most students have not experienced or mastered. There may be some frustration with the newness. I expect much frustration to come from new ideas and thoughts and thought patterns. That is the evidence of growth and learning. Some students have said: just tell me what you want me to learn! That, to me, is like requiring paint and a frame and instructions for painting by the numbers. More is expected of me... and of you. The media of the course are designed to assist people with different learning modes and thought processes. There are opportunities for visual learners, some audile learners, and some qualitative and some quantitative learners. The ability to move hither and yon throughout the web site material should be of great value to those of you who are (or are becoming) holistic in your thought and work.
A course outline is available as is additional introductory and advisory material.
Assignments for the semester are also available.
I wish you well and I shall be glad to assist in the course as well as related activities and projects.
Sincerely yours,
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Last revision August 2, 2000.