Hands on Environmental Education Leads to Exciting Careers

Have you ever wondered how to combine a satisfying career with your love of the great outdoors and desire to protect the environment? All three come together under the rubric of natural resource management. People engaged in this science, focus on the complex interactions between soil, climate, land, water, plants, and animals. These dynamic natural resources are monitored, evaluated, restored, and protected to maintain biodiversity and balance. The goal is to provide the highest and best uses for both society and the ecological systems people and animals need to sustain life.

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The tasks associated with natural resource management are nearly as diverse as nature itself. Those working to protect the environment are involved with safeguarding deserts, grasslands, wetlands, forests, and other under-protected areas. They study geology, watersheds, fishery and wildlife biology, forestry, waste management, and tourism. atural resource managers are charged with acquiring endangered habitats and animal migration routes. They work to restore disturbed areas and return them to their original diversity and ecological functions.

With a long-term commitment to the land, natural resource managers maintain natural areas through a variety of techniques. These might include overseeing controlled burns, eliminating invasive species, removing roads and structures, and preventing erosion. Managers work with scientists and researchers to inventory, monitor, and assess natural resources including plants, wildlife, and habitats.

As commercial pressures and expanding populations continue to distress the natural environment, growing numbers people are needed to act as stewards of the land. As the state of California parks department notes: “Human use has left its mark on the landscape and has created complex practical puzzles for [natural resource management] professionals to solve. Representing all fields and possessing specific knowledge, resource specialists plan and implement the resource management work necessary to maintain our [land] in an ecologically healthy condition… preserving the best for today and into the future.”